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.