My Last CTMH Convention Studio J Layout

This is my last Convention Studio J layout that I made.  I was going to talk about all of the gorgeous techniques that I used to make this layout but instead I think that I will talk about what this layout means to me.

This layout was the hardest one for me to create.  Not because it had difficult techniques, but because of the photos and the journaling. 


Even blogging about it is hard.  I have enjoyed card making and paper crafting but scrapbooking has been so paralyzing and I believe it is because of the relationship I had with my father. 


Dad was an alcoholic.  As a military wife and mother, moving away physically also allowed me to move away emotionally and it was a total relief.  But I craved a relationship with my father.  After 17 years apart, I flew to Las Vegas and saw my father again.  We forged a new relationship which I enjoyed until he died a few years ago.  The pictures in the above layout was from when Dad came to Memphis to meet his great granddaughters for the first time and have Thanksgiving with me and my daughter’s family. 


After I placed the pictures in the photo wells I had to walk away and come back the next day to journal.  With tears in my eyes, I finished the journaling and sent it off.  Sometimes scrapbooking can be about more than your pictures.