Taking A Break

Over the last few months I have really enjoyed writing this blog and corresponding with talented scrapbookers and bloggers all over the country. But as they say to every life there is a season, and as we come into a new season it is time for me to focus on other aspects of my life. Thank you for all of the kind comments I have received on this blog, they have really made this blog fun. Even though I will not be blogging regularly (or even semi-regularly), I will definitely continue to follow the blogs of my fellow scrapbookers, enjoy this hobby and most importantly record my life in my scrapbooks.

10 Reflections on Creative Escape

So yikes, it has been almost a month since I got back from Creative Escape 4, and so I think the time is long overdue to give you my top 10 thoughts about the great Creative Escape:

1. Unbelievable sisterhood - you know when you strip away the zebra prints, the pink cowboy hats and the tiaras what I was most struck by was how genuinely sweet and caring everyone was and how much true carefree fun all of these women had. When people ask why anyone would pay all that money to attend a scrapbook conference - and admittedly it is a silly thing to do - I would say because life is hard and Creative Escape is really, really fun.

2. Tim Holtz really is as good as you think he is - My favorite instructor and favorite class hands down, was Tim Holtz and his suitcase mini-album class. First of all it was the only class in which me and my mom were actually able to finish the project. Second, he was just a great teacher, his class was more than a rushed set of instructions, it was a whole presentation. Anyone who follows Tim knows he is really into Disney, and he showed a cool video at the beginning of his class with Walt Disney all about the importance of imagination, I was inspired. He also did a great job explaining all of the Ranger inks and goodies he gave us to use. And most importantly we left the class with this really great project - perfect for us ladies with boys in our lives. Check out the project and his impressions of the event on his blog.

3. All for charity? or just a little crazy? - Quick how much would you pay for these lamps? Now what if I told you the pink one was designed by Heidi Swapp, and the other lamp was designed by Tim Holtz? Would you pay $2,000 . . . $3,000 . . . how about $8,000 for Heidi Swapp's lamp and $29,000 for Tim Holtz's lamp. Yeah, you're reading that right. Heidi, Tim and other designers created lamps to be raffled and auctioned for charity - the proceeds were going to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. The auction event was wonderful, exciting and just a little looney. It was a nice send off.

4. 45 Minutes in the Bazzill Warehouse, Is a Good Thing - So the first thing I did when I got to Arizona for Creative Escape, was jump on a bus and head straight to Bazzill's warehouse to start shopping. If you didn't know the Bazzill paper company is located in Arizona. Creative Escape offers a tour of Bazzill's offices and a chance to shop in their overstock warehouse. Talk about being a kid in a candy store. My mom and I left with bags and bags of stuff, and the deals were great. In fact between the Bazzill warehouse store, and the on-site scrapbook store, the shopping was really good. I'm still unpacking stuff.

5. The ladies on the Yahoo! Message board Rock! - Right after I got my e-mail saying I could register for Creative Escape - otherwise known as the "golden ticket", I joined the Creative Escape messageboard, and about 3000 messages later, I can safely say those ladies are really the heart of Creative Escape and a big part of what makes Creative Escape so much fun. My mom even got in on the action and participated in a card swap. I learned a lot, laughed a lot and made a couple of friends.

6. Scrapbooking and Spa Treatments Go Together - A hot stone pedicure and a mojito - talk about a creative escape! The Aji spa at the Sheraton Wild Horse Resort was wonderful.

7. Sprinkles Cupcakes are Yummy - So Sprinkles cupcakes were not a part of the event, but the kind ladies on the Yahoo! message board put together a run to the Sprinkles cupcake store, and since I think it's important to have a cupcake whenever possible, we got a few. They were great.

8. Classes were a Little too Fast, but the Day was a Little too Long - You know I had a feeling I was the slowest scrapbooker in the world, but Creative Escape really proved it to me. I don't know how other people felt, but I thought the pace of the classes was just too fast. I also thought some of the classes were not well designed. The only project I actually finished Tim Holtz's suitcase mini-album - more about that in a minute. At the same time, 4 long classes beginning at 8:00 a.m. each day was really hard to get through. I don't know about you but vacation and 8:00 a.m. classes don't go together. By lunch time on Saturday I was ready to play a little hooky, and I cut out early to go to the pool - and I wasn't alone. Sometimes you need to escape, even at Creative Escape.

9. Favorite Projects were Lynette Carroll's photo wall art project and the 7-Gypsies wall art project - I really enjoyed Lynette Carroll's photo wall project. I did not finish it in class due to the number of pieces, but I can't wait to get it done at home. It will definitely find a place in my scrap space. I also really liked the wall art project from 7-Gypsies. I'm generally not a big fan of vintage, but this project was really cool and I happen to have the perfect pictures to go with it.

10. Arizona is really, really hot. - Let's face it when it is 113 degrees outside, I really can't think of anything better to do than spend the day in a highly air conditioned room learning new crafting techniques from my favorite scrapbook craft designers.

Super Size Mine

Lately I've been into big embellishments. I don't know why, maybe because I like the idea of one simple embellishment to finish a page, instead of lots of small elements. I'm sure next time I sit down to scrapbook, I'll be inspired by something else.

Do You Scrap by Color?

I do, but it often takes me a long time to decide what colors go best with my photos. So I'm excited to check out this new tool on scrapbook.com.

New Online Tool: Scrap by Color

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Getting Buggy!

For all of my fellow fans of the Cricut, I thought I would share some of my favorite blogs and websites for Cricut inspiration.

Bitten By the Bug - Regina's team always has lots of creative ideas and a new challenge each week.

Tammy's Place - Tammy does amazing cards and layouts with the Cricut.

Chirper Challenge - This site does challenges every other week.

Just a Scrappin' - This is a good blog if you are looking for basic information and tutorials about individual Cricut cartridges and all of the various accessories for the Cricut machine.

Whimsical Scraps and Bugs - This is another fun challenge site. I just discovered it, but it also looks fun.

Of course, all Cricut owners should sign up for the newsletter and the messageboard at www.cricut.com. The messageboard is filled with wonderfully creative Cricut owners sharing layouts, crafts, cards and most of all great information and tips about the Cricut.

Ok, enough gushing from me last time I checked I was not on ProvoCraft's (maker of the Cricut) payroll ;)

Happy scrapping!

Warehouse Sale: Sassafras Lass

Just saw this on one of my new favorite blogs CraftGossip and I thought I would share. I love Sassafras Lass. I'm very tempted to take advantage of this, I mean just about anything from Sassafras Lass would be useful and fun, but CE is 2 weeks away, so I really need to refrain. But you should enjoy!

Warehouse Sale: Sassafras Lass

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Christmas in August?

So I've noticed a lot of stores both on-line and brick and mortar having "Christmas in July" type sales. I recently had a great time picking up digital freebies (and I did end up putting in an order) at DesignerDigitals Christmas in July event. With all the early holiday buzz, I thought I'd finish up the last of my holiday layouts from 2008.

The first one is about last year's tree trimming and the fact that it was the first year that my 2 sons were really into decorating the tree and really helpful.
I used an 8.5 11 in. layout template from Jessica Sprague for Creating Keepsakes to layout and print my photos. I then matted the photo paper on white cardstock and added a strip of blue pattern paper from BasicGrey to balance the layout and add my journaling. Not groundbreaking, but quick and effective.

The second layout I finished up was one about making cookies with my sons.

Finishing up these layouts made me realize that the holidays in 2008 were really special because, it was the first year that my kids really "got it" - not just the presents, but the enjoying of family traditions. It was good to relive those memories and see that connection.

Feeling Crafty

So 2 Peas in a Bucket is doing a 9-week class called Thinking Inking with Jennifer McGuire. Now the class is in it's final week, but don't fear you can watch all of the short videos on YouTube. That's what I've been doing. Now in general I would consider myself more collector of rubber stamps and ink pads, and not so much of a user. I think this is because it don't really know how to use rubber stamps and ink to create the types of effects and art I see and love in magazines and on websites. Anyway, this weekend I watch Jennifer's video on using Perfect Pearls (I've added a link to this product if you don't know what it is). Basically Perfect Pearls are shiny pigment powders that you can apply to paper products using a sticky embossing pad called Perfect Medium and a brush. You use water to set it. Now I have seen people do amazing cards and projects with these powders, so of course I have several unopened jars of the stuff. So I was excited to watch this week's video on using Perfect Pearls to see if I could learn more about them.




If you have these powders in your stash I highly recommend checking out Jennifer's video. I learned a lot. I tried out some of my new knowledge on 2 bookmarks/tags I cut out using my Cricut.

Going to Creative Escape 2 weeks from Today

So I'm doing it. My mom and I are going to our first Creative Escape this year in exactly 2 weeks. I'm really excited and I hope that I really love it. This will be my first time going away on any type of scrapbook retreat, and my first time taking classes with any of the instructors that will be at Creative Escape - so everything is sort of an unknown. One thing I know for sure is that my mom and I will have a great time at the resort.

So as the event gets closer, we're starting to get a few fun things from the organizers. Check out this really cool "autograph"/ mini-album I made from a digital kit that the organizers put together for attendees. Pretty cool, I think!

Of course, I will be blogging about my experiences when I get back. In the meantime, let me know if you've ever been to Creative Escape and your experience.

It's My Wedding Anniversary

Today is my 8th wedding anniversary! Wow, time really does fly. The last 8 years with my husband have been amazingly eventful, and I'll just say upfront not all of it is fit to remember in the family scrapbook. LOL! Here is the card I plan to give him. My husband loves comics and video games, so I wanted to create a cartoon image of one of our wedding photos. This was my best effort in photoshop elements. Unfortunately, the photo is not very clear, but I like the way the card turned out.

Memories Monday - My Hilton Head Vacation Scrapbook Album

I recently got back from a wonderful trip to Hilton Head with my family. On the trip I took tons of pictures, and when I got back I was excited to get started creating a vacation scrapbook album. So I thought I would share my process for creating theme albums.

The first thing I do is upload my photos to my computer. For this trip I took a total of 200 photos over the course of a week. Not bad but before I start my album I need to whittle this down to a more manageable set of my best photos. So the second thing I do is start deleting all of the fuzzy, out of focus, too dark, or poorly composed pictures. Next I get the rest of the pictures printed as standard 4x6 photos. Not all of those photos will go into my scrapbook album, probably less than half. The rest of the photos will go in a family photo album. In addition, I will also take some of the better photos and enlarge them or add text to them for my album. But once I have all of my photos printed, I organize them and plan my album. It's weird, but its hard for me to really organize my photos on the computer. I organize the photos in whatever way feels natural. In this case I organized them by vacation events. See my piles and labels below.


Next, I decide how I will organize my album. When it comes to a vacation album the most obvious way to organize it is chronologically. And that is basically what I decided to do, but I also plan to include some relationship and fun activity layouts

Next, I gather all of the memorabilia from my trip and put it in a large ziploc bag. Some of the items I have from my trip are maps, newspaper and newsletters, postcards, sea shells my son collected, and information from the resort company we used about our beach house. Some of this will make it into my album, and some will go in the trash. But for now everything's in the bag.

Finally, I pick out an album and a basic color scheme. In this case I picked a nice cream-colored linen 11x8.5 inch landscape album from Martha Stewart Crafts that I picked up on sale around the holidays. I rarely do theme albums in 12x12 sized albums. I think the basic 7-day vacation just lends itself to a smaller size. But I don't go too small either, otherwise I can't fit that memorabilia I mentioned.

For the color scheme I picked yellow, blue, green, brown, and orange. A lot of colors but basically earth tones. Once I've decided on a color scheme I don't get too rigid with the products I use. I tend to pick embellishments and pattern paper based on the layout I'm working on. I also don't just stick to paper. For this album I'm doing a combination of digital and paper layouts. I find digital layouts help me get more photos on my page in an artful way and more done quickly. Paper layouts allow me to add texture and include the memorabilia in a natural way. I'm using Bazzill's 8.5 x 11 inch Earth Tone Basics cardstock and Michelle Underwood's More Than Words digital kit. Finally I choose fonts. Now this is not necessary if you plan to hand write your album. I don't plan to hand write mine, so I picked a couple of fonts that I will use for every layout. This creates continuity and helps keep it simple. I'm using the Joyful Juliana font and Art House Vibe Alpha brushes for my titles, and American Typewriter for all of my journaling.

Ok, now with all of that done I start writing. Why, because I can't scrapbook until I know what I'm scrapbooking about. So after photo selection (and sometimes before), I begin my albums and many of my layouts with journaling. I write my title page. I write a basic table of contents/ themes I want to cover. Then I write about my vacation. I write about the road trip, I write about my impressions of our beach house, I write about meeting my husband's extended family, etc. I don't finish all of my journaling at one time and not everything will make it into the album, but by writing about my trip first, I have a great outline and idea guide for my album.

Now the fun part. Putting it all together. I will talk more about planning pages and adding memorabilia in my next Memories Monday.

Memories Monday - Wish You were Here?

Did you take a vacation this year? If you did, are you in any of your pictures? I hope you are, but I understand if you're not. We scrapbookers and self-appointed family historians tend to be really good at recording the lives of our immediate family (whether they like it or not), but not so great at recording our own lives or making sure we're in the shot too. I had reason to think about this lately, as I just got back from vacation. Here are my tips for making sure you're on your next vacation and in attendance at that next family reunion:

1. Put the camera down - When I first got into scrapbooking, the conventional wisdom was fill up the digital card and just delete later. The idea was the more pictures you took the more likely you were to get a few really good ones. This is great advice for a budding photographer or a scrapbook designer, but it's not particularly helpful for a birthday party guest or someone trying to actually enjoy their vacation. If you spend all of your time taking pictures, you tend not to be in any pictures (who wants to photograph you with a camera in front of your face), and more importantly you don't get to enjoy the event. So my advice, decide in advance what types of pictures you would like, focus on getting just those pictures and then put the camera down and enjoy the event.

2. Ask someone to take your picture - A lot of times simply asking someone to take a picture of you is the easiest way to make sure you're in the shot, but for some reason this is not always a natural thing to do - even around family. I'll let you in on a secret - my 5 year-old takes the majority of the pictures of me and my husband. I use a simple point and click automatic digital camera, and I have taught him how and when to use the flash, and some basic composure tips. He does a great job, and he loves it when I ask him to take my picture. So my advice, find someone to take your picture.

3. Ask for copies of pictures taken by others at the same event - Have you ever been to a wedding where the bride and groom put disposable cameras on each table at the reception? The pictures from those cameras are fascinating, because no two people view or photograph the same event the same way. While we often seek out pictures of things we may have missed from an event, sometimes it can be helpful to get all of the pictures taken by someone else. You may be surprised to find that someone was making sure you were in the shot.

So those are my basic tips for making sure you're in the shots and a part of the memories. So no one has to think "wish you were here".

What's Inspiring Me Right Now

I just received the latest issue of Creating Keepsakes. It's their travel issue, but to be honest it's not really taking me anyplace I haven't been before. That being said I get inspiration for layout colors, design and topics from lots of sources other than scrapbooking magazines. In fact, I sometimes think scrapbooking magazines are worst places to try to get inspiration because the topics are so generic and its hard to not to be intimidated by some of the work of the designers.

So this is what is inspiring me right now.

Julie Fei-Fan Balzer - I really like this designer's work. I recently saw her in action on the pbs show Scrapbook Memories and I loved her doodling ideas and her creative scrapbook style. I was delighted to find she has a blog. Check out her work.

Art Quilts - Now I don't make quilts and I haven't sewn anything since I was a teenager, but I love art quilts. I'm finding lots of inspiration in art quilt designs lately. I think art quilts and quilts in general offer great design ideas for scrapbookers because fabric piecing has a lot in common with paper piecing and the way many of us approach layouts.

Jenny McGuire's column on die cuts in this month's Creating Keepsakes. As usual she had lots of great ideas I had not thought of for using die cuts. I can't wait to try cutting out fabric by glueing it to cardstock first.

Flickr - Flickr is a great source for color and design ideas. First there are tons of scrapbookers and scrapbook layouts on the site, but even better than that, I like to just search a color like "purple" and see what sorts of pictures come back. I often search flickr when I'm stumped for color combinations or I'm just looking for the right "feeling" for a layout.

happy scrapping

When Work Gets In the Way

Lots of work, and not much playing this month. It seems even when we want to make time for this hobby (or for ourselves) it can just be hard to find the time. Life as a working mom is a constant balancing act - but too often it seems just when you think you have it figured out, things tend to get out of whack again. That's been this month for me. But I thought I would share a favorite layout I recently did inspired by a bedtime argument with my son. I didn't tell him at the time, but just like him - I wish I could play for 100 hours.

Friday Finds

I love this big world wide web of crafting inspiration, but I thought I would post links to a few new and favorite local spots to hang out at on the web.

First up - the DC Paper Craft Examiner - this column at the Washington Examiner on-line is a good one to check periodically to find out about local crafting stores and events.

Next up - the Scrapbooks Plus Store website. As anyone who has been scrapbooking for a few years knows, local scrapbooking stores (LSSs) have been going out of business in droves. Scrapbooks Plus located in Chantilly, Virginia is a bright exception to that rule. I love this well-stocked store with friendly and helpful staff. Check out their class schedule and kits.

Finally, a few blogs from local stampers and stamping stores, always great for inspiration.

Melinda's Musings - Melinda teaches cardmaking classes using Amuse stamps

A Happy Stamper - this is the blog for Angela's Happy Stamper, a rubberstamping store in Reston, Virginia. I'm planning to check it out really soon.

The Queen's Ink - I can just spend a fortune in this great store (and I have). Check it out if you are ever in the Baltimore/ Washington D.C. area.

What Size Are You?

We scrapbookers tend to sweat the small stuff a lot. Case in point - I've read numerous articles, blog entries and message board posts debating what size paper one should use to make a scrapbook page or album. Of course like all great "debates" there is no right or wrong answer to the question. As for myself I mostly use 12x12 inch paper for my scrapbook pages. This is the most common paper size used by scrapbookers and most companies sell their paper in this size and make albums to accomodate this size paper. I like the standard 12x12 inch paper because it gives me plenty of room for photos and journaling. The drawback with 12x12 inch paper is that it is big and takes up a lot of storage space, and the albums don't always fit on bookshelves.

I started off scrapbooking on 8-1/2 x 11 inch letter sized paper, and I still like to scrapbook on this size paper, especially if I am only using one photo or if I don't have a lot to say. Letter sized paper is great if you do a lot of scrapbooking on the computer because it allows you to use a standard sized printer. Letter sized paper is also easier to put in albums. For one thing you can put a piece of letter sized paper in any loose leaf binder you have on hand and in a standard sheet protector. Of course scrapbookers today have many more options than just these 2 sizes of paper. Scrapbook companies make albums and paper in many sizes including 6x12 inch, 8x8 inch, 9x9 inch, etc. While I rarely deviate from my two favorite sizes when doing everyday layouts, I like to experiment with new paper sizes and albums when I make smaller vacation or mini-albums. Lately I have been doing layouts on letter sized paper and I thought I would post a couple of creations.

Happy Mother's Day!

I hope everyone has a wonderful Mother's Day today. Here is a card I made for my mom.

Messy Memories - Week 18 Sketch

I'm on a roll - 2 weeks in a row I have completed the weekly layout for the 52 Week Sketch Challenge going on at Classy Coordinates. This is my interpretation of the Week 18 sketch.
Layout uses cardstock from American Crafts, button embellishments from Sassafrass Lass, "Messy" was cut out with my Cricut using the Cuttin Up cartridge. Pattern paper and chipboard letters are from Pink Paislee. TFL!

Memories Monday - Scrapbooking Old Photos

A couple of months ago I read an article in the February 2009 Creating Keepsakes Magazine by Ali Edwards called "Scrapbooking Childhood Photos" and her message of focusing on the stories and not spending too much time "fixing" the old photos really stuck with me. Over the last few months I have received some wonderful old photos from a number of family members. Most of the photos are faded and not particularly well composed. At first I would scan these photos into my computer and spend long periods of time trying to make them look like "new", usually ending up frustrated and not doing anything else with the photo. But after reading her article, I decided to go with what I had, and since then I have enjoyed pulling out these photos and just scrapbooking the memories they recall or the feelings they evoke. It's been said before and I think it's true sometimes we make this hobby harder than it needs to be. So try pulling out a few of the older photos you may have, scanning them into your computer and just start scrapbooking. Your memories are waiting.

Another Classy Sketch and Layout

I got this done and uploaded a little later than planned, plus this layout is actually more like 12.5 x 12 inches instead of 12x12 because I didn't realize the paper had an attached label on the the other side, but here is my take on the Classy Coordinates Weekly Sketch. This is based on the Week 17 Sketch. The papers are a little different from what I usually use, but I like how this turned out.

Awesome Craft Convention in D.C.

Now you know I don't necessarily consider scrapbooking a craft. I consider it recording memories in an artful way. For me the recording part comes before the art part - of course a quick review of my work makes that obvious. But I digress. I was on the train yesterday and read about a really cool handmade craft convention that will be in Washington, D.C. this weekend. It's called Summit of Awesome - I would love to check out the documentary or even attend the Show of Awesome, but my weekend is already looking a little overbooked so we'll see. But I thought I would share, since it does sound pretty awesome.

Scrapbook Conventions - Yes or No

So I would label myself a pretty avid scrapbooker. After all I have a blog about scrapbooking. I have a lot of scrapbooking stuff, and I even scrapbook from time to time. So I think maybe it's time for me to go to a scrapbook convention. There are several in my area that I've had my eye on for the last couple of years, but to be honest I'm not sure I'm a convention type of scrapper. All the matching outfits, funny hats, and pink gives me a sorority girl vibe that starts to make the college radical in me a little uncomfortable.

But it sure looks like fun. So these are the conventions I'm thinking about:

The Great American Scrapbook Convention being held in Chantilly, VA - This convention is more or less being held in my backyard, so I definitely think this would be a fun one to attend. This convention offers a lot of workshops, but there also appear to be a lot of make and takes that are included in the registration fee. So I wonder which would give me more bang for the buck. I love to learn new techniques and make things, but I'm sure I'm going to want to shop and find out about new products. Decisions, decisions

Creating Keepsakes Convention in Valley Forge, PA - This is another pretty local convention for me. I've considered going to this one for the last couple of years, but work and other commitments have made it impossible. This year might work. Again, I wonder if the classes are important, or would the convention be enough.

Creative Escape 2009 - This sounds really nice, but it's in Arizona - not exactly around the corner and it's the most expensive of the conventions I'm considering. But it does sound really, really nice. I might think about this one next year, depending on how I like one of the more local ones I'm considering for this year.

So what do you think? Have you ever been to a convention? Have you ever been to one of these conventions? Let me know. I'd love to hear some opinions from my fellow scrapbookers.

Gone - But Not Forgetting the Memories

So it looks like April is about to end without much commentary from me about scrapbooking. While I have not been blogging much this month about scrapbooking, I have busy creating a few layouts and working on finishing a few projects. I thought I would share a few things before the end of this month.

So I begin with a twofer. This layout is a 2 pager about our visit to the Cherry Blossom Festival in Washington, D.C. and also uses embellishments I received in my April 2009 SweetPea Scraps kit. This layout uses paper from Sassafrass Lass, and various embellishments from the April 2009 SweetPea Scraps kit. I highly recommend scrapbooking clubs, and SweetPea Scraps is my new favorite (I've been in 3 different ones over the last few years). Also, the layout design is "scraplifted" from PageMaps. This is a great website with nothing but layout and card sketches. I frequently use it for layout ideas. Her sketches are a great timesaver.

Next up - a cute layout featuring my nephew Tyler. His father calls him Mr. T. This layout uses pattern paper and cardstock from the SweetPeas kit. I also used my Cricut to create the title and the embellishments. I used the Cuttin' Up and New Arrival cartridges. I'm a huge fan of my Cricut and I use it on almost all of my layouts. In the first layout I used it to cut out the circle.

And another layout featuring my sister-in-law. This layout uses pattern paper from October Afternoon and We-R-Memory Keepers and I also got these papers through scrapbooking kit clubs. The cardstock is from Die Cuts with a View and Bazzill. I used my Cricut to cut out the title and the house. I used the Home Accents, Going Places and Plantin Schoolbook cartridges. The embellishments are from various manufacturers including K&Company (journaling cards), K.I. Memories (rubber accents) and Making Memories (epoxy tags).



So that's a few of the layouts I worked on for the month of April. I hope to get one or two more posts in before the end of the month featuring so other stuff I'm doing. But we'll see.

I've Been Tagged!

I happen to be checking out one of my favorite blogs ScrapHappy, and Lain had just posted a picture in response to being tagged by another blogger, and at the end of the post I realized she had just tagged 7 more people and one of the people was me?! Gotta love this blogoshere thing. So this is the challenge/tag:

The tag how-to...

• Go to the photos folder on your computer.
• Go to the seventh folder of photos.
• Go to the seventh photo.
• Put the seventh photo on your blog along with a description.
• Invite

seven friends to join.

Here is my photo:

So this was the seventh photo in the seventh folder on my computer. This is a photo of my oldest son at a birthday party at a local firehouse last year. I took a lot of pictures at that party, but this one was definitely my favorite. Finding this photo reminded me of the fact that I need to organize some of the random photo folders in my iPhoto program - for instance this folder is called "Preschool Birthdays" - but I only have photos from this one party, so it should probably just go in my 2008 folder.

Next up, I tag:

Ife

Thomisia

Lisa

Akiba

Tiare

Cynta

Chela

Caryn

Waiting for Stampin' Up!

So maybe you've heard, another giant of the scrapbooking industry is having a tough time riding out this economy. This time it's Stampin' Up! According to this news article that appeared in Deseret News on March 20, 2009, Stampin' Up! has experienced a 10% reduction in sales over the last two years and is now anticipating having to lay off some portion of their 500 person workforce - this does not include their 40,000 independent demonstrators.

Now some might say they are just another casualty of this difficult economy, but I say that Stampin' Up! along with it's scrapbooking cousin Creative Memories is suffering from more than a downturn in the economy. They are suffering from an obsolete business model that is finally showing its age. You say, why so grumpy - Stampin' Up! makes great stamps. And you're right they do make great stamps, but they make those stamps way too hard to get. I happen to be waiting right now for a Stampin' Up! order. A month ago, my mom and I went to a Stampin' Up! party mainly to support a good friend and hang out with a few former co-workers. It was their "Sell-a-bration" event and I ordered enough stuff to get a free stamp set. To be honest with you I don't even remember what I ordered, but my Discover card does remember what I paid for it. Meanwhile, our very sweet consultant promised to put the order in right away and said that this time she would not have to deliver it to us (good because she lives in Western Maryland and I live in Northern Virginia - quite a hike), and that the order would be sent directly to my house. That was a month ago. I haven't gotten my order yet, but I'm sure I'll get it soon. Just not when I wanted it. That's the problem with Stampin' Up! and Creative Memories. Your consultant never has what you want on hand and must order your products. And your products can usually never just come to your house, they must go to her first and then you must play phone tag for an extra week until she finally meets you and drops off your order. Meanwhile, you could have gone to your local big box store and bought a scrapbook, paper and supplies and created a scrapbook album in the time it takes to get one overpriced stamp set from Stampin' Up! Scrapbooking has changed, and unfortunately Stampin' Up! and Creative Memories have not changed with it. Today through the internet you can meet and gain inspiration from scrapbookers from all over the world. Stampin' Up! and Creative Memories, despite many changes they have made, seem to be stuck in an alternative universe where all scrapbookers live in the same cul-de-sac and scrapbooking supplies are strange items that can only be obtained from your consultant or demonstrator. I hope they wake up and figure out ways to compete in this market. In the meantime, I'm still waiting for my Stampin' Up! order.

Democracy in Action

Do you know how a bill becomes a law? I'm not sure either, but last Tuesday I had a chance to see how things are done up close when I spent the day on Capitol Hill participating in the National Bar Association's annual Day on the Hill. It was a productive and interesting day, although it was also a little hectic and disorganized. We met with several congressmen and congresswomen to discuss the legislative agenda of the National Bar Association. A few observations - Did you know most of the meat and vegetables served in the Capitol Hill cafeteria are organic and they recycle all of their trash - even the republicans do it. Talk about your tree hugging elitists! If you're claustrophobic you could not be on the staff of any congressperson - all of their offices (even the offices of long-time powerful members) are tiny. Not sure if any of the banking plans will work, but I will give Ben Bernanke and Timothy Geithner credit for having the patience of Job. At the congressional hearing I watched, every single congressperson asked them the same exact question about AIG bonuses - even though they gave the same answer everytime - and neither one of them ever snapped at any of the congress members - they would make great parents of toddlers.

Time To Dance

So here are my brackets for the Men's NCAA Div. I Basketball Tournament starting today. Never one to keep all my eggs in one basket I have made 2 brackets. If you would like a printable bracket for yourself go here. And of course as a scrapbooker I must have a theme. My first bracket is what I call the "Book Smart Bracket". This bracket is based on stuff I read in the paper this week about the teams - it has Louisville, Villanova, Memphis and Oklahoma in the final four, with Louisville winning.

My second bracket is called "ACC Pride" and this is a bracket that any fan of the Atlantic Coast Conference would love. It has Wake Forest, University of Connecticut, Duke and North Carolina in the final four, with North Carolina winning it all.


In both cases I did some rethinking at the end, but I think these are winners. If there are any other scrapbookers or others who read this blog that did brackets this year, send me a note, I'd love to see your picks.

Plus, check out the President's picks.

Any Excuse

So I'm not Irish and I don't regularly "celebrate" St. Patrick's Day, although I do love corned beef and cabbage and I'm looking forward to eating the one I'm going to throw into my Crockpot tonight. But I was in the mood to make a card and to use my Cricut machine - afterall I did pay over $300 for it (but I digress - I'll save my thoughts on why this hobby would drive a pretty practical woman to spend over $300 on a machine that cuts shapes for a separate post). So here is my first ever - St. Patrick's Day card. I plan to give this one to my husband and I have two others (with a different sentiment of course) to give to the boys.

Go Maryland! Go Terps!

This note is not about scrapbooking, but I just had to recognize the beginning of one my favorite sports events of the year, and that is the NCAA Division I Mens and Womens Basketball Championship tournament. I love the University of Maryland terrapins. I am an alumni of the University of Maryland at College Park, and while there I ran Cross Country and Track and Field at Maryland for 3 years (don't miss much about college, but I do miss my abs - but I digress). If you are a fan of the University of Maryland Women's Basketball team, then the last five years have been wonderful - the ACC Championship this year and the NCAA Div. I Championship in 2006. At the same time, if you have been a fan of the University of Maryland Men's Basketball team the last 5 years have been a little disappointing. But, this year the NCAA Div. I Basketball Championship should be great time for all Maryland fans - with the Women's team sure to receive a No. 1 seed and the Men squeaking in with a No. 10 seed. I will be posting my picks and brackets later this week. Let the Madness begin!

Memories Monday - Fond Memories of my friend Barbie

I could not let this day pass without mentioning the anniversary/birthday of a woman who meant a lot to me growing up, and that woman of course was Barbie. I heard this morning that today is Barbie's 50th birthday and I for one hope that I look that good at 50 and can be that good at reinventing myself along the way.

As a girl growing up I loved my Barbies. I played with them for hours in my room, creating elaborate story lines about her friends and her boyfriends and her adventures. I had everything for her, including the Barbie dream house, corvette, horse and jeep, and even the Barbie McDonalds (yes they made these things, and yes I had them). When I went to a friend's house with Barbie, I lovingly packed her into her own pink Barbie suitcase with space for clothing and accessories. With kids of my own now, I'm just beginning to appreciate the tremendous investment my mom and dad put into Barbie and Mattel (but I digress). But, alas life was not always so easy for Barbie in my house. Between being subjected to my hairstyling techniques that frequently included scissors and food coloring, and being terrorized by my little brother - who often bit the feet off of my dolls, life was a series of highs and lows for Barbie - and yet she always seemed to weather these trials with a constant smile, ready to start a new day. Not a bad approach to life.

This is possibly the start of a weekly feature on this blog, that will be called Memories Monday, in which I write about memories big and small, and consider ways to use these memories in a scrapbook. What about you? Is there a toy that you grew up with that you still have fond memories about? Write those thoughts down, and consider doing a scrapbook page about that toy, with or without photos. I for one am off to look for that picture of myself in front of my Barbie dream house on Christmas Day in 1981.

Head of the Class - part II

So I talked about one of the classes I'm taking at 2 Peas In A Bucket. The other class I am taking is called Here, There and Everywhere. This class cost me a few dollars and is more involved than the A Year of You class. The class description from the website is below.

Here, There & Everywhere is the title of the album but also of the album's three sections, as we scrap things near home, places you've been and the places you still want to go.

With all of the job and life moves I've made in the last year, I thought this would be an interesting album to undertake. So far I've been happy with the class. In the first week the instructor challenged us to take pictures of our environment, to use photo editing software in new ways and even discussed how to organize our scrapbooking projects. This past week we started creating the first section of the album. Unfortunately, starting the album also coincided with my sons getting sick and a hectic week at work, so I've only finished the title page and one section, but I hope to catch up in the next week or so. That's the thing with on-line hobby classes, it is the ultimate - you only get what you put into it - experience. Some of what I've done below.

Head of the Class

Lately I've been having fun taking a few on-line scrapbooking classes. Both of the classes are at Two Peas In A Bucket - one of my favorite scrapbooking websites. The first class is really more of a monthly challenge and it's called A Year of You. On the 20th of each month the instructor sends out a class handout featuring a layout featuring photos taken that month and several techniques to try. The point of the class is at the end of the year you will have 12 layouts - with one layout for each month of the year featuring pictures of your family or whatever you're into. At the end of each month or maybe the year she will give away a prize. Here was the instructor's layout for January and below is my take on it.

Here was her layout for February and my take on it below.

You will notice my layouts look a lot different from the instructors, but that's ok. For this class, and really most of these on-line classes, you can either follow the layout exactly or adapt it as necessary. So I'm psyched, if I can keep at it I might end out with a complete album for 2009.

Technical Difficulties and Valentine's Day Recap

So you may have noticed that I have not posted to this blog in awhile. The reason - my husband spilled coffee on our keyboard last weekend, and I just picked up a replacement on Monday. So I'm baaaack.

While I was gone, an important and often guilt inducing holiday just passed. That holiday was Valentine's Day. While the media tends to focus on this holiday as an important holiday for young lovers, and an "opportunity" for mostly male suiters to prove their worth by shelling out lots of money for silly stuffed animals and roses, the real story is what a big deal this holiday is among the pre-school set. Valentine's Day is the ultimate test of the worth of the overworked and overtired WOHM (work outside the home mom) or SAHM (stay at home mom) to make upwards of 100 valentines and supply cookies and candies in time for the all important "Valentine's Day Party" taking place at an inconvenient time near you.

As scrapbookers, there is also another dimension - that is to make the Valentines or to buy them. Why should we make them? Well if you're like me you should make them because you have enough pink paper, stickers and ribbon in your basement to fill the landfill of a small municipality. So you feel you should use that stuff - especially since you have 2 sons and a nephew and very few occasions to scrapbook with anything pink.

Well this year, I'm happy to say I met the challenge. I created these simple Valentines all by myself. I didn't get any official word, but I believe they were a success.

But I also want to show off a beautiful Valentine's Day card I received from a friend and fellow paper crafter. Isn't this great, I may attempt something more ambitious like this next year.



Finally, I want to show off the card I made my husband. I used a $1 stamp from Michael's Arts and Crafts Store. This card has caused great concern for my kids - they keep asking why I'm gray or Daddy's gray and what we're doing. Oh, well - they will soon see the affairs of the heart only get more complicated.

Tough Guys Scrapbook Too!

So yesterday, I saw the movie Taken starring Liam Neeson with my husband. Although action movies usually put me to sleep instantly, this one didn't - so I guess it wasn't half bad, or maybe I still have a small crush on Liam Neeson, or maybe it was the middle of the afternoon and the movie theater was a little creepy. Oh, the things we do for love.

Anyway, I'm glad I didn't fall asleep during the movie, because if I had, I would have missed the fact that Liam Neeson's character was a scrapbooker. Can you believe that! Early on in the movie (before he goes on a killing rampage) you see him putting pictures in an album about his daughter, and as he flips through the album you even see a few stickers on the pages. The scrapbook even plays a role in moving the plot along. The scrapbook shows how important his daughter is to him, even though he hasn't always shown it in past actions. Unfortunately I could not find a clip of this part of the movie on YouTube or anywhere else to post here, so you'll just need to take my word for it or check out the movie - if you're into movies about dads who scrapbook and go on killing sprees when their daughters get kidnapped.

I'll Take That Challenge

A big thing in scrapbooking right now is "challenges". A challenge is basically when another scrapbooker, or a magazine editor "challenges" other scrapbookers to do a layout on a certain topic or do a layout using a certain product, etc. To participate in the challenge, a participant just needs to upload or send a layout to the scrapbooker holding the challenge. Usually the challenge is accompanied by some sort of prize. The prize is never for the "best" layout - because being competitive is not usually how scrapbookers roll. The winner is usually picked out of a hat with all of the names of the participants in it.

Anyway, this week I decided to participate in the 52 Week Sketch Challenge being held at ClassyCoordinates by Tiare Smith. Each week Tiare posts a "sketch" or drawing of a layout, and asks participants to design a layout based on the drawing. Sometimes I'm feeling the sketch, and sometimes I'm not. This week I liked the Week 5 sketch, so I did a layout.

Here is the sketch.


and here is my layout, based on the sketch.

Scrapbooking and the Passive Commute

Like other activities that start with the letter "s", I think about scrapbooking more than I actually do it. But I think that's a good thing. Scrapbooking seems to be one of those "crafts" (and I'm not sure scrapbooking really is a craft - more on that in a future post) that require more planning on the front end than in the execution - afterall the "execution" tends to be just pasting pictures, paper and a few trinkets on paper.

And that's really lucky for me because I don't have a lot of time to sit down and make pages. Many people comment to me that they don't see how I have time to scrapbook since I have a full-time job, two small kids and a household to run. Those people are observant - I don't have a lot of time to scrapbook or really to do much of anything outside of my full-time job, two small kids and a household to run. So you ask - how do I do it? Now aside from avoiding housework at all costs - because cooking, cleaning and laundry for a family of 4 can really sap away a perfectly good day - I get lots of good scrapbook planning done at my creative space away from home - the metro train. I have a 25 minute commute to work by metro train - a so-called passive commute - and I find that using this "me" time is a great way to come up with ideas, read craft magazines and otherwise be productive. It works for me.

Giving a Little Credit

While I would love to take total credit for designing my blog title header, I actually got some help from some of the great free and almost free on-line resources for scrapbookers. One of the biggest changes in scrapbooking today is that a lot of people scrapbook or design pages exclusively or mostly on their computer and share layouts through e-mail, photo sharing websites, or by printing them out at home or through an on-line photo processing service. There are many on-line resources to help people design scrapbook pages and other digital elements and I used a few on my blog. For my blog title header I used a template for the basic design from ScrapGirls, an on-line digital scrapbooking store, and I used digital pattern papers from a free digital scrapbooking kit called Magic Rainbows designed by Rhonna Farrer available at Two Peas In A Bucket. These on-line resources can make digital and paper (sometimes called "Traditional") scrapbooking faster, but before they can be used a person needs to have a fairly strong understanding of at least one of the popular photo imaging software programs like Photoshop Elements or Corel Paint Shop Pro - and gaining that knowledge can be time consuming and require a small to steep learning curve. But with most of us today taking all of our pictures using a digital camera, it's a good idea to learn to use your photo imaging software if only to make the pictures you take look their best.

Welcome from a scrapbooker in the Mid-Atlantic area

Welcome to my blog Paper Pen Pictures. This blog is about scrapbooking, finding inspiration in the everyday, and documenting a little bit of my life as a working mom and crafter living outside our nation's capital. While I will talk more about my philosophy of scrapbooking and why I think it is such a great hobby in the coming weeks and months, I just want to briefly talk about the title of my blog and why I think it fits my style. Paper, Pen, Pictures - perfectly describes my style of scrapbooking and what I think is important. I am a "simple scrapbooker" - I like to focus first and foremost on the stories and happenings in my life from my point of view, and I'm not big into embellishments and "stuff" on my pages. So if you are also a simple scrapbooker, or are thinking about starting a scrapbook I hope this blog will be a fun place for you to check out from time to time to find ideas.