Life and scrapbooking

WOW! I am completely caught up! I have finally journalled my Disney pictures from last December, too! It feels really great! It took me until 5am on Friday night to get it done, but the lack of sleep was worth it! I also whipped out my pumpkin patch pictures. I opened up the perfect fit orange paper, and used the same stickers I had last year. They are the lazer cut harvest stickers, and I love them! I also used one of the gifts from my great gathering (mine was last weekend!) on one of the pages. I used the 12x12 paper from various packs, and completely covered all 5 pages of the pumpkin patch. I have now completed 10 albums for my 4 year old. (gasp!)

Other than that, we had a busy couple of days around this house! We attended an 80's party on Saturday, and that was something I had to capture on film! My friend Ann dyed her hair purple and had it spiked up in the air, all over her head! It was fabulous! I found that as I got dressed for the party, I found myself reverting back to that decade! I immediatly needed a stick of gum, and used words such as "like"and "sike" more often. It was fun to be with friends, having a lipsynk contest and making rinky dinks!

Our last big adventure was my daughter's princess room. My husband has been working on this room for MONTHS! In fact, I just came across the "Before" pictures yesterday! He has done such a great job, really! He's very good at painting. I wasn't really able to help with the labor until recently. He let me do a lot of the finishing decorating. It was nice to be up there working together to complete the room. We just showed it to her tonight, and she was thrilled! However, I found it near impossible to get a picture of her because she was so excited and didn't stay in one place for long enough to capture her on film! This is where the digital camera comes in handy! My husband was able to get some good shots with the video camera, and we looked at them right away, so I know that some of them turned out. As much as I take pictures, I still don't want to blow all of my film and not feel that I have gotten the perfect shot. (Or even a passable one!)

My new scrapbooking project is an album I'm doing for someone else. I hope to complete it pretty fast, as it will only be 30 pages.

Tip of the day: I often will get out of the habit of closing my cutting system blades each time I use them. Two reasons to close up the blades every time you are done using them are: you can get a nasty cut from those sharp blades and you can bend the tip of the blade if you don't have it protected. Both have happened to me. So, take the few extra seconds, and close up your blades!

Scrap Happy!

Autumn Layouts

Last year, I made sure to do everything fallish with my daughter that I could. I took her out to play in a pile of leaves, went for walks with her to find the most unusual leaves we could, had her dig the innards out of her pumpkin to make salty pumpkin seeds, and showed her how to make caramel apples! We had a great time, and the proof is in the album! To complete my pages, I opened up a pack of paper (shades of amber) and found that I loved it! The colors were just what I needed, and I liked that there were a few patterned sheets of paper in it. One page I was especially happy with was a page of her making carmel apples and digging out the pumpkin's seeds. I hate to combine the 2 activities, so I separated the page softly by covering half the page in paper. I covered the bottom half of the page, because I wanted it to look like caramel. On the top half of the page, which was still white, I placed the pics of my daughter making and eating the caramel apples. I cut one of the pictures into a circlular shape and matted it in green. I made a stick for this "apple" by cutting it out of paper. I had it just barely being dipped into the caramel of the bottom half of the page! The caramel half was where I did the journaling and placed the pumpkin gutting pictures. I love this page! I need to figure out how to get pictures from my digital video camera onto this blog so that you can see it for yourself!

Here is what I journalled on this page: I really want you to get to experience the different seasons and the fun activities that go along with them! We made pumpkin seeds by taking the seeds out of you and Daddy's pumpkins, soaking them in salty water & baking them. They were too salty, but we still ate them all!

Tip of the Day: Another page element I used last year, was this: I took a picture of a fall leaf and profiled it, cutting all the rest of the photo away, until just the leaf remained. Then I placed the leaf in the middle of the page. It's striking! I actually did this on a 2 page spread, with one leaf in the center for each page. One page was the usual white, while the facing page was black.

Scrap Happy!

Great Gathering and then some!

This weekend was a busy one! I had 2 workshops! Friday's workshop was well attended and I was able to complete several small pages (7x7 size) for books that I have made in the past and I am now adding to. Saturday, was my all day workshop! This year, I called it Autumn's Great Gathering. Everyone who came worked well together, and I was happy to listen to the conversations going on all day. We had a meal together, to which everyone contributed, and it was so yummy! As always, there were prizes and give aways, but we changed things up a little this year, and played a game. I will have to change things again for next year, since I found that most people like to know up front what purchases will earn a reward! Of course, the sales were mouth watering, and the crop talk was fantastic! It really was! The little handout was stuffed with ideas that we liked! Best of all, was the amount of pages we were able to complete. I was so proud of everyone! Thanks to everyone who attended! I appreciate the fact that you brought food to share, and that you came to spend time with me!

I'd like to share exerps from some e-mails I have already received.

thank you again for an enjoyable day with good people and creative input.
I hope you are not toooo tired.
Thanks again.

Hi Alea,
Just a note to say THANK YOU !!!! You did it again. Another wonderful gift you gave us, your friends and customers. You planned a wonderful day, put lots & lots of time and thought into blessing us. Everything was so nice, as always. You have a fun-loving heart and we get to benefit from it. Take care.

It is so nice to be appreciated! Thanks!

Upcoming events:

My next workshops:
November 3rd at 7pm $4

November 17th at 7pm $4

Don't miss my Christmas Open House!
Saturday, November 18th
I'll have specials, gifts, and let you scrap for free during the whole open house! Stop by just to shop, or get your free gift, or stay to scrapbook! It's up to you!
If you have been to my open houses, you know how much you get out of them. If you haven't stopped by, you don't know what you're missing!
check my website for times! www.mycmsite.com/alea

It isn't too early to tell you about my first retreat! I'm really excited about it! I just found and booked the retreat center this week, and it is adorable! I will be taking non-refundable, complete downpayments open immediately! It does seem far in the future, being that the retreat isn't until March 9th! With the way time is flying, it will be here before you know it! Space is limited, so if you want more details, please e-mail me at aleasalbums@yahoo.com .

Scrap Happy!

Changing Colors

On the latest beach vacation, I took both black&white and color pictures. I used black& white film and when I wanted to take color pictures, I simply used our digital camera that is in the video camera, or the water camera I had brought with us this year. Let me just say that I loved having the water camera, because I never had to worry about keeping it out of the sand and surf. Since then, I've discovered that it doesn't cost any more to get your digital photos printed in B&W, which is really cool! I'm new to the whole digital thing, bear with me! I like putting both color and B&W pictures on the same page. In fact, I have just gotten pictures printed in Sepia for the first time, and I can't wait to put those on a page with my color pictures. The Sepia pictures are from the train ride we took. I only had 2 printed like that, because it looks so old fashioned and works perfectly with the train theme! OH, I lOVE IT!

Pumpkin Patch Memories

Happy Autumn! The air is chilly, the leaves are reddening and falling from the trees, and the sweaters are coming back as well, so it really must be fall! I don't mind because I like Autumn! It's good weather for scrapbooking. I just got these pictures of our day at the pumpkin patch today, and I now have another roll of film to scrap. It shouldn't take me long. I am so happy with these pictures! Sometimes, you get a roll back and feel that you wasted it, only a few of the pictures came out. Even with a digital camera, sometimes you can't get the picture you are trying for. I know! This day was cloudy, which is good for picture taking. I wore yellow on my daughter, because I was thinking of how nice it would look with the pumpkins. I was seeing things in pictures, which I can't always do. I like it when I can. This way, I took the pictures from the perfect angle for the shot, and was able to capture things I usually just miss, because I had my camera always at the ready. It was a beautiful day of memories, and I'm just thankful that the pictures captured that.

YAY! I'm done!

I'm so excited to be all caught up on my daughter's album! You have no idea how good that feels! Well, maybe you do! I was just looking through the pages again today, and I had to take it with me to show people! I am in shock that I have almost filled up an album of only the summer months! But we did a lot! Her first bike, our road trip, beach vacation, first time playing putt-putt, swimming, ...(there are probably too many pictures of her swimming, but it just impressed me that she can do that now! ) and her first trip to the dentist. Like I said, a lot happened! I am really liking the pages though! I am especially tickled with the page I did in a cartoony way. I even dreampt about it the night before I did it! It turned out cute. I'm not sure that it looks like a cartoon enough, but I can keep working on this concept on other pages. I'd love to put a photo of it on here, but I can't figure out how to do that at this time. Challenge yourself to complete a goal! It feels so good when you accomplish it!

What I'm up to

One of my fellow consultants brought me the gold flecked pages I have been dying to use! I'm so excited because that means tonight at my workshop, I can scrapbook my beach pages at long last! I would be caught up after that, but I sent another roll of film in to Snapfish to be developed, so I will have that to do. I'm trying to catch up so that I can work on the albums I am doing for others.
October is usually a slow month for picture taking for me. The roll of film being developed is mostly of the pumpkin patch. I do plan on taking some this weekend, as Jae is going to her friend's birthday party, where they will be taking a train ride! How awesome is that?!

Tip of the Day: If you want to save the life of the battery in your camera, remove it from your camera when it isn't in use.

Scrap Happy!

Expand your horizons

Yesterday, as I was cleaning, I had a realization! People are forever telling me that they love this page or that one. I realized that a lot of the time the page elements on those standout pages are items that I didn't know what to do with when I bought them. What I am trying to say is this: Alot of people will look at a sticker pack, see stickers they think they will never use and say, "See, I would never use the _________ sticker, so I don't want to buy this whole pack." People do the same thing with paper packs. Well, maybe if you went outside of your box a little bit, you could find a home for those stickers on one of your pages, making something you never would have created had you not stretched yourself a little.

Scrap Happy!

Bright Garden

My local library is hosting a photography competition. Are you interested? It costs just $5 to submit a photo. I want to do it, mostly to support the library, because I use it so often. Plus, I think I take pretty good photos sometimes. That said, I did one page yesterday. Yeah, one. I managed to fit 8 pictures on a single page, and not have it look too crowded. I used an idea I think I've mentioned here before, but it's been awhile! The pictures are of my daughter and her gramma's garden. The colors are fantastic! Bright lime greens and Hot pink! I made a seed packet out of green paper and have some seeds falling out of it. The seeds are actually accent marks from the ABC stickers. I've been waiting for an appropriate place to use this idea for quite a while. I didn't have to journal much because the pictures pretty much speak for themselves. Plus, I didn't have a whole lot of room left! The seed packet doubles as a title. I used ABC stickers to write right on top of it.
Well, the library photo contest is soon! If you live nearby, and know me, call or e-mail me for info on it.

Scrap Happy!