Yikes! I've been so busy with homeschool that I haven't had much time to blog about anything, much less finish any pages. I did manage to complete some of the pages on my trip, but we didn't have nearly as much time to scrapbook as we'd planned. I got a new personal Cricut machine, though! We also went to the zoo, so I have tons of photos to add to my stacks and stacks, lol! I really just need to have them all printed.
Anyway, as soon as I find those layouts, I'll upload them. I've been working on other crafts lately, doing projects with the kids, and super busy with church activities. My poor house has suffered!
I am working on a journal project to help me clean my house. I need Flylady! I'll start by taking embarrassing photos of my messy house and creating a scrapbook layout. Then every day I'll work on one room and take a new picture. When the room is nice and clean, I'll have progression photos, and plenty of journaling, This will be seperate from HMITM challenges, since I cannot even get to my scrapbook supplies right now!
I wanted to let you know about the new blog I made. There are no posts yet, but if you click on my profile, you'll be able to get to it. It's called My Whimsy Projects, and it's for all of these non-HMITM projects, so I don't end up posting them here. Take a look, hopefully I'll have posts up soon.

The missing page has been found! I didn't even know it had been missing. I just now found it behind my computer and decided I'd better upload it right away since it has been about a month already! Here is Challenge #45: 1 patterned paper + 8 types of embellishments + journal in the first person + reveal something about yourself + you are the subject. I like this layout. I used products from the December 2009 Scarlet Lime kit and my trusty white pen. The flowers were cut from one of the patterned papers in the kit. This brings my tally for June up by one. No layouts for July. I've been super busy, haven't really had any down time, even with my insomnia overflow. However, the first week of August I'll be taking about a week to visit family and I have set a goal to complete 50 challenges while I'm gone. I am visiting someone who also likes to scrapbook. How will I do this?
1. Write down the challenges I'll be completing (#46 and #48-96), and then form a master list of supplies to pull from stash. This list will look something like this: 96 paper scraps, 42 flowers, 88 buttons, 50 ribbons, 115 brads/eyelets, 18 rub-on phrases, etc.
2. print and organize the photos for all 50 challenges.
3. select background cardstock for each challenge (whether it's one page or two pages), and slip each into a page protector with the photos in my staging binder in order by challenge.
4. pull all the items in my list from my stash, substituting only if absolutely necessary (I try to keep things easy here. I choose a variety of colors and patterns and textures, but I try not to throw in anything that doesn't look like it could go with very many things. I try to stay away from themed items for this part, unless it's on my list).
5. I flip through my challenges one at a time and add in as much as I can. Some things will have to be done separately before the trip, such as choosing titles and title elements, stamping images, etc, and other things will have to wait until I get back, such as stitching, adding stickles, and the like. I'll take my basic tools, but I'd like to travel light.
6. When I start working on the challenges, I'll have everything gathered together in the page protectors, and the finished layouts will be protected in the same page protectors until I get back home.
7. If I finish all 50 challenges and have leftover supplies (scraps of paper, most likely) I will make embellishments and cards.
That other project I've been working on, well, I've had to put aside most projects to prepare for this trip. Hopefully I'll get back to it next month.

Okay, I know it's my second post in one hour, but I just remembered I said I would tally my layouts and completed projects for the month of June. I wanted to post the last of the layouts for the month, even though it's out of order. I skipped Challenge #46 for the moment, so here's Challenge #47: Title and/or journaling on a main photo + 4 patterned papers + 7 flowers. I used the June kit from zanyzinnias.com again. Start Here, With Stacy - Assignment #1: create a layout that features at least 3 photos (taken at different times) that illustrate a particular personality trait in someone you love. Use sticker (or) chipboard letters. I did not take the whole assignment literally, rather as a starting point, so the rest of the challenge doesn't really matter here. I highlighted my sister's uncanny nature to not allow candid photos of herself to be taken.

Start Here, With Stacy - Assignment #2: Find a heritage photo that you know very little about. Use rub-ons over paper and photo. Attach ribbon to photo. The rest of the challenge I disregarded again, as it's my habit to try to make things my own if they don't fit. I journaled about all the things I could tell of my Nana's teenage years based on this photo alone, because I don't know any other details. She's the one on the right, holding the fishing pole and the soda. This photo was probably taken sometime in the 1950s. This was the June Zany Zinnia kit again. I made the butterflies using the newsprint paper bag (see the card I made for the SRM sketch challenge for more of this paper) and the Martha Stewart butterfly punch (love that thing!), and two adhesive pearls. I stapled the ribbon onto the photo. Don't worry, it's a reprint, not an original photo! :)

So my final tally for the month of June is as follows: HMITM 22-45, 47, 135 (25 layouts) + BPS A Baker's Dozen 13 layouts, egg carton, sketches booklet (15 layouts/projects) + SRM Card Sketch Challenge (1 project) + BPS Start Here, With Stacy (2 layouts) = 43 layouts/projects completed, and that's not counting the things I've been making for my new etsy shop. I'll wait until I have them posted in the shop to count them as completed. There. Now June is complete. :)

I just received a nice comment from a woman who's sign-in name is Kathleen. I don't know what happened to it, though. I clicked the "publish" button and the comment disappeared! That makes me very sad. I always like to visit the pages of those who leave comments for me, so if you get the chance, Kathleen, please try it again?
You mentioned the stitching tchnique I used on challenge #43. Do you remember trying this in grade school at all? Should I make a tutorial? It's fun and easy to do, and makes for a cool netting look, I was going for a "butterfly net" feel.
Hmm, I really should upload those new layouts, but I think I want to show you another project I made. It's a journal to keep me focused on only a handful of projects at a time. It's a work-in-progress that I'll be adding to over the month. I just need to make a few last-minute touches and I'll be ready to scan it into the computer for uploading.
An update: Our 4th of July seemed very busy. We had set our alarm to get up for our first day of church, and messed up the time so it didn't wake us up. I had one hour to get 5 people ready to go. Then we had a late night with the kids up until past 11:00pm. Oy. We took over 100 photos, then deleted all the blurry ones, so now I still have 78 to weed through and fix up before printing.
I'm kind of a rambling blogger. The less I have to talk about, the more I tend to ramble. I'll be back soon with new pages. Promise.

Whoa. What just happened there?
I was plugging along, happy in my world of hmitm and photos and adhesive and punches, and all of a sudden my BPS class ended, and poof! there went my mojo. I mean, it's silly, right. I'm only days away from the next class starting, Kidding Around (the one that involves scrapbooking with your kids), and I find myself searching for something to work on in the meantime. Hello!? Isn't this what this blog is for? Lol, come on, Seane! You can do this!
Okay, so, here's what I've been up to instead.
1. It's that time of year again. Yep. Any homeschoolers out there starting on plans for the next school year? Well, I am, and I don't use any fancy curriculum, just pieces I find and put together myself. I haven't really found anything I like 100% or that completely work for us, so I use one type for history, another for literature, and probably a bazillion different ones for art. You get the idea. I've been busy wracking my brains!
2. Soul searching. Well, church searching, anyway. My little family is going to try out a new church in the morning, which makes for a super-long 4th of July this year. If we feel at home there, we'll be going from having no church to, well, having a church, I guess. I am not super religious or anything, so don't be expecting a lot of faith-based pages, just the odd one or two here and there.
3. I have been reading some of Ali's earlier blog posts about some of her big projects, and I have been thinking about doing my own versions of a few of them. First I'll start by reorganizing all of my layouts into albums, because there just isn't any organization whatsoever there. I need to look at the albums I spotted in Wal-Mart today, the fabric ones for $10 that come in a handful of colors. I want to see if they would accept 8.5x11 page protectors as well as the 12x12 they come with. If so, great! I'll have an affordable way to display all my albums on the bookshelf in the living room. If not, I'll be looking for 12x12 binders, I guess.
4. I have been really taken in with some of the mini albums I've been seeing in the magazines, and I am yearning for a vacation, an actual trip away from home that involves the whole family and sight-seeing, but I just don't see the budget for it this year. We can still enjoy a staycation, but I would just like to get out of the house, head to the beach, or something.
5.Fighting with the camera. It eats batteries. I mean, just 5 minutes' worth of photo-snapping, and I'm having to replace the little buggers. So today I went and bought a recharger, that way I can at least reuse the batteries after they get used up.
6. In anticipation of the new class and some new materials I ordered for scrapbooking, I have been trying to dig up the motivation to clean up my scrap space. I've been working on it every time I work, but I just need to dive in head first and not come up for air until I tidy up all the bubbles.
No layouts today. I have a few, but I've been jumping out of order, and that just won't do, will it? Also, I've been working on a self-paced BPS class (Start Here, With Stacy, it's free) and have done a few layouts inspired by that. Since there's no gallery for it over there, I might as well post them here, when I have more than two. I don't really like to post for just a couple pages, if you haven't noticed. :)
Okay, one more note about something I'd like to try. I said I was looking at some of Ali's big projects, and I think I may like to do a 365 Project or a December Daily or a Week in the Life. Then I saw One Month at a Time over on Get It Scrapped! blog (www.debbiehodge.com) and got even more inspiration. My problem is always that I am a few months behind the times, always catching wind of these great projects too late to jump in with the crowd. My solution? The Academic Year :D Starting July 15th, 2010, and ending July 14th, 2011 makes a lot of sense for me with school-aged children, especially when they are homeschooled year-round. Next to the Calendar Year it looks more organized (whoever thought to put the end of the year in the middle of winter? Well, in the USA.), and next to the Fiscal Year (which would make more sense for us if my family life began and ended with my birthday, which is in April, but still too late for the new planting season) it is more celebratory of where we live. Think about it: the United States Independence Day marks near the end of the academic year, near the center of summer holidays, and the beginning of another year of age for our country!
I know I'm overthinking this. It's what I do. Have an eventful 4th of July!

Four more older HMITM challenge layouts to share. I am on a roll here!

Challenge #41: 10 stickers (all the & signs in the journaling) + 10 buttons + 10 stamped images (title letters). I combined two different alpha stamp sets. The lowercase is from KI Memories, and the "M" and "H" are from Autumn Leaves. I stamped with lavender ink onto white cardstock, traced around them with a black pen, then applied diamond glaze. When they were dry, I cut them out. This layout is for our Story People Book. :) This layout is for Challenge #42: 2 photos + 4 papers + 6 embellishments + 8 rub-ons/stickers + subject is someone/something we appreciate.

Challenge #43: nothing can be less than a year old + 20 pieces of patterned paper + 20 ribbons/fibers/materials + 20 embellishments + no new pictures. I used 20 long stitches of embroidery floss in opposite corners of the layout. I actually have 40 pieces of patterned paper that I turned into 20 3-d butterflies, and added a tiny rhinestone gem to each one.

Here's a sketch I learned from a BPS class, altered a bit. This is challenge # 44: 4 different embellishments, 4 times each (I used 4 bee brads, 4 papers, 4 ribbons, and 4 large letter stickers) + subject is something there are 4 of (these are our garden boxes).

I hope you are enjoying the layouts a little, and maybe finding motivation to go back and complete some old challenges this summer. I have so far completed challenges 22-44 and 134. That's 25 layouts, plus 13 from A Baker's Dozen class from Big Picture Scrapbooking. While I am waiting for the next class (Kidding Around) I am working on these HMITM challenges and also a self-paced class called Start Here, With Stacy (Julian). At the end of the month I will tally up my completed pages (and yes, I will count that card I created for the SRM blog hop challenge, plus the egg carton and sketches booklet from A Baker's Dozen).

Another handful of layouts for older HMITM challenges. I'm slowly getting them all uploaded. I still have 5 more layouts to upload that are finished, and the new challenge was just released yesterday, so I'll be working on that as well. I've been taking a BPS (Big Picture Scrapbooking) class all month, and Wednesday is the last day :(. I have been having lots of fun, creating 13 layouts with new and interesting photo combinations. I won't be posting those layouts here, though, because I don't want to ruin the surprise of the class. (It's A Baker's Dozen with Darci D.)
So here's challenge #35: products from 10 different manufacturers + a piece of advice. This guy, whom I love, decided to run through the emergency exit in the hospital, while I was in labor, to let our UPS delivery driver know we weren't home. He hadn't noticed the signs on the door. Laugh. Out. Loud! My piece of advice: Always read the instructions. This is the left side of a two-page layout for challenge #36, followed by the right side: journal a list with at least 3 items (I journaled my childhood playmates, not necessarily my schoolmates) + use punctuation creatively (notice the "@" in the title on the 2nd page) + 1 tag + 4-letter title + 1 type of stitching (I used rub-on stitches in two places) + 5 photos (these are places surrounding my childhood home where I often played with those other kids I mentioned) + 9 arrows (I used white pen to draw arrows on black cardstock and cut them out).

Challenge #37: at least 2 photos of childhood memories (this is my kindergarten/elementary school) + 1 stamped or rub-on journaling spot (located on the bottom photo) + journal about a childhood memory (all the games I remember playing during recess) + 1 piece of ephemera or non-scrapbook item (top left-hand corner has a piece of a yellow sheet of legal pad paper) + 3 different patterned papers + 3 pieces of ribbon or lace + 3 pieces of metal + 3 pieces of plastic/epoxy. I wanted to make this page about the old version of Silly Bandz, the plain round ones I collected back in the 80's, but they are very hard to locate.

This page of my kids blowing bubbles is for Challenge # 38: only circular elements, apart from photos and background. I journaled in the round, I used polkadot patterned papers, and I punched circles out of transparencies and painted the edges white to house the title alphas.

Okay, here's a stroke of genius on my part. The Challenge is # 39: 7-letter or 7-word title + 7 strips of patterned paper + 7 embellishments. Did you catch it? This is my newly 7-year-old son, and I interviewed him about all his favorites right now. The title "I'm Seven" is exactly 7 letters!

Soon, I'm going to be reorganizing all my layouts, just like Ali Edwards did (check out her blog for details). I will be gathering all, and I mean ALL of my completed layouts, sorting them by year or person, and putting them into albums accordingly. I wish I could use binders for this, but I used to scrap in 12x12. Actually, I used to use Creative Memories albums, so I don't know what I'm going to do there. I'll figure it out. My goal is to have an album for each of my kids, plus some mini albums I've already done, an album for myself and another for Adam, and then chronological family layouts in however many albums it takes. Using binders, I've figured I can load 20 filled page protectors per inch of width on the spine, but I am not sure about the 12x12 binders.

I'll keep you posted. :)