Assignment A: 
Choose a subject that is important to you and photograph that subject. Your photos should be expressive and show the emotion that you feel for the subject. You can accomplish this through lighting, distance, depth of field, and any other photographic technique.

My Concept:
I included photos of Brendan and the journaling describes how we didn't expect to have a child and how having him really awakened feelings for a child that I never knew I had.  I pulled out the sewing machine for this one, sewing on a piece of fabric that I got from my mom... it may be 20 years old for all I know.  LOL!  I had to really watch myself because I wanted to sew on every layout I was doing.  This layout also features Bazzill Basics Boshers, the green circles at the top.  I'm also obsessed with those right now.

Assignment B: 
Create a two-page layout that includes the following elements: 10 photos, 1 journaling block, 1 title, and 3 accents.

My Concept:
I wanted to illustrate the values and family traditions (Our Family Heirlooms) we are giving Brendan with photos of things that illustrate those things.  The tag on the top of the left page is made from baking clay on which I glued the definition of "heirloom" with diamond glaze so it would be wrinkled.  The title piece is also baking clay but for this one, I printed the word "heirlooms" backward on a t-shirt transfer, burnished it into the clay, baked it for half the time, removed the t-shirt transfer, thus baking the letters into the clay. 

Assignment C: 
Create a layout with your freshest, most innovative use of texture.

My Concept:
This is probably the layout assignment I failed on... I'm useless with given an assignment on texture.  I love to USE it... but I tried so hard to be innovative, I failed miserably.  This is the layout I initially bought the clay for... the letters were always in the plan.  I cut them using a template and pressed a texture plate into the clay before baking.  I then rubbed them with metallic rubs.  Then I saw the screen (Making Memories) and thought it went well with the concept of Brendan drawing on the windows.  The brown and yellow "paper" is textured with horizontal lines.

Assignment D: 
Choose someone in your life whom you admire. Create a layout that expresses your feelings about that person and describes a single attribute that you have learned to appreciate through knowing that person.

My Concept:
This layout features those most elusive of creatures:  photos of my husband, Joe.  LOL!  I admire Joe because he has such self-confidence... more than the average bear.  Because he is notorious for wearing ONLY black, shades of grey or other dark colors, I stuck with a black color scheme.  The journaling is hidden behind the ribbon-tied doors on the upper right.  I punched holes in the background paper (Sticker Studio) and put cording through the holes, tying it on the ends.  The two black ovals are Heidi Grace and I used white rub-ons on them... I LOVE the effect!

Assignment E: 
Create a one-page layout that shares your vision of where you will be 1 year from now. Share with us your hopes, dreams and goals for the future. This is our chance to really get to know you better.

My Concept:
For this assignment, I showcased our recent lifestyle issues... our new plan to eat right and exercise (photo of me on an exercise bike, which I do every morning now), our recent payoff of some of our credit cards (the piggy bank photo) and our booming business plan (the logo of our online web-hosting business on the bottom).  Nothing outstandingly innovating on this layout, but I LOVE the colors and the plaid paper I found for it.  LOL!

Assignment F: 
Create a one-page layout that you feel best illustrates your strongest attribute as a scrapbooker.

My Concept:
I love using sketches and I think my story-telling journaling is one of my best attributes as a scrapbooker, so that's where I went with this layout.  The "word" piece and the "trend" letters are baking clay (Sculpey and Premo) and again, more stitching on there using some of the nifty stitches available in the Gameboy cartridge for my sewing machine.  The concept was to document this layout IN this layout... like seeing several layers of reality.

Additional Layout 1:
That is an X-ray of my son when he swallowed a penny.  I made it look like the X-ray is part of a medical file.  The journaling, documenting the entire event, is on the blue and tan tabs which are in vellum pockets sewn onto the background.  The yellow and red tabs hanging down the bottom of the "file" are vellum that I hoped would resemble Post-It tabs.

Additional Layout 2:
This is one of my favorite layouts.  That's Brendan telling me that the singer on the CD sleeve is his "best girlfriend"... he had no idea who she was.  LOL!  The pocket is sewn on using fabric from my mom's considerable stash.  The chains hanging from the mesh are taken from some Karen Foster Taglines (I used the words on a different layout) and are attached with jumprings.

Additional Layout 3:
I saw some photos similar to these in a photography magazine so when Brendan got some balloons from a grocery store one day and I saw our shadows when we got home, I ran into the house to grab the camera.  The balloons in the photos are NOT tinted digitally... that's the color that showed up in the photos.  The lines on the background paper are sewn with a machine... I tried to simulate the strings on the balloons.

The poem is original just for this layout:

On a warm summer day,

I hold your small hand in mine

As we walk along the path

Green and red balloons bobbing

In the air.

We have fun, you and me,

With those colorful balloons

Out on a warm summer day.

But your shadow grows longer

With each step we take

While mine begins to fade.

Eventually, you have to go off

On your own

Sweet laughter trailing behind you

Leaving me filled

With pure and happy memories

Of red and green balloons

And your hand in mine...

On a warm summer day.

Additional Layout 4:
Bren loves to "play" his guitar and has said he wants to be Bon Jovi.  Yeah, it's pretty cute.  For this layout, I was going for bright and rock and roll-ish, complete with the leather and studs look for the accents.  The "leather" is from my mom's stash again.

Additional Layout 5:
I took these photos of Brendan on July 5, 2003 in California.  I'm not the best photographer, but I was tickled with these.  The cloth paper is Miss Elizabeth, the Dollar Tree line.  I made the two tags... I'm not a collage scrapper so this was my attempt to do some collage elements.  The rub-ons are new from Making Memories... can you tell I LOVE rub-ons?  The word pieces on the journaling are Karen Foster Taglines with the chains removed (and used on the Best Girlfriend layout).

Additional Layout 6:
I LOVE this layout!  Brendan went though a ketchup phase and I just ADORE the photo on the left.  LOL!  The fabric is some I found at Craft Warehouse in their incredible "fat quarter" section and when I found the Basic Grey paper (under the photo on the left) that matched it, I was in heaven.  There are the Boshers again, this time with rub-on letters spelling out adjectives describing ketchup and tied with strips of the fabric.  The letters in Ketchup are CTMH stamps with paint.  The journaling is sewn on with the fabric on the top.