FLASH!!!!

I love that I have a digital camera and can see my pictures as soon as I take them. This helps me to train to be a better photographer. I have been challenging myself to take specific pictures, to learn how to take the picture I want.

Tip of the day:One thing I really learned from this book was that you should try not to use your flash! It's so bright, stealing away from the feelings in the picture you're taking. You capture the mood when you don't use a flash. Try to use natural light, which is best. But you can even get good pictures just using the light from candles (with a tripod and a night setting) . I have taken pictures using the light from the Christmas tree, although I've never loved the result. But I usually am unhappy when I take a picture of the tree with a flash. It just sucks the ambiance right out of Christmastime.

The picture on the left is one I took without a flash several years ago.

A few days ago, I challenged myself to take a good picture of my daughter without the flash. I positioned her next to the Christmas tree, (very close to get enough light!) and would ask her to try and find certain ornaments, just to keep her looking at the tree. The hard part was keeping her close enough to the tree! She would back up to get a better view of the ornaments! I also opened the window to let in some more light.

Yesterday, I positioned my daughter and her friend at the window. I captured only 2 pictures that were any good, because when they moved, it would blur. I love the picture of them looking out of the window at the snow!

Scrap Happy!

The book, the retreat, the workshop

Workshop Friday was so thereputic! It's so hard to get back to scrapping once you stop, and having a workshop was just the punch I needed! Can you believe I finished 13 pages in the 10th grader's last album? I'm still not finished with it, but I will be soon! It felt really good to scrap.

My retreat is coming up fast! It's 7 weeks away now, and I still have a few rooms available if you want to come! Just ask me about it! You will have your own room and bath, and we can scrapbook in our pjs if we want. I plan on getting a lot done at this retreat. I want to be completely caught up before I go to Arizona to visit family!

I just finished that amazing photography book by Nick Kelsh.( How to Photograph your life)
Here are some tips from the book:

*take close pictures

*take lots of pictures of an important situation

* don't put your suject in the middle of a picture, rather place them off to the side

Scrap Happy!

Digital Christmas picture

Yesterday we dressed up, and sat in the living room, to use the auto timer setting on my digital camera for the first time! We took Christmas pictures in front of our tree and the stockings STILL hung on the mantle, with care! I know, it's a little late for all of this to be happening! Will plugged the camera into the TV, so that we could see how each picture turned out, which made it just like being at a studio! The setting we accidently chose, allowed us to get into place and took 3 pictures, a very nice feature!

Late last night, I was on the computer, attempting to order some of my Christmas prints, which eluded me! I finally gave up and went to bed! Oh, how I long for the days when I could just send the film in to be developed! It was so much easier! However, I just need to get the hang of this, and then I'll like it, I'm sure!

The artist in me

I just started reading a book called, "How to photograph your life" by Nick Kelsh. So far, it's really good. I like reading an expert's opinion, and all of the photographs in the book were taken with an ordinary point and shoot camera. Just a few pages into it, and I have already learned that I need to get to know my new camera better. I had the camera I just retired for 3 years and I never learned more than the basics.

Now that I have my digital camera, the hardest thing for me to get used to is the fact that I can take as many pictures as I want, because I won't be wasting film! I have better odds of getting the perfect shot if I take more pictures. In fact, this book encourages you to take as many pictures as you can possibly get in. Today, I took my camera out on the porch and clicked away as my daughter played in the snow. It feels so great to have the freedom to take as many pictures as I want!

The author told of a time he photographed Olympic swimmers, spending hours at the edge of the pool, just watching them swim. He said that after that experience, he found himself to be a much better swimmer . That is what he is hoping to do for the readers of this book. I have found that I can be inspired by all sorts of things in my scrapbooking. I can take ideas away from magazines, art on a commercial, other people's albums, even the grocery store! I once spent a wedding day with a girl I had just met. As she and I ran around snapping pictures, she seemed to catch the perfect shots! She inspired me to look outside the box, and I found that my photos from that day conveyed a lot of meaning, really captured the moment and took you there.

It wasn't until I watched this cheesy teen movie yesterday that I realized that I'm an artist! I have always held that term in high regard, but really, many of people are artists in their own right. I feel that my photos and my scrapbooks are the way I express myself artisticlly. Part of being an artist is to let other people feel what you are feeling. It's very personal to put yourself out there. If I can let my daughter feel some of the love I feel for her as she looks at the albums I've made of her life, then my work will be complete.

Christmas Day 2006

Christmas Day brought memories of family and friends and past years, delicious smells of gingerbread, cookies and ham, stories of truth about the savior born in a stable, and stories of fiction about the little animals who came to see him, and the jolly, red-clothed man known the world over. Along with all of this, came a new camera! I disliked it immediately! It wasn't fast enough, and I don't like to miss shots! My husband was upset that I was grumbling, and after he made a few adjustments to it, I found that it took pictures a lot quicker. Grudgingly, I started to appreciate that I could take picture after picture until I got a good one! It has only been a few days, but I have already taken over 100 photos. I enjoy deleting the ones that don't turn out, but I can already see that I'll have a problem choosing between photos of the same subject that just look a little different!

Christmas Scrapping break?

This is a picture of me, taken by my 4 year old while we were shopping at Disney World.

Well, I haven't done a thing having to do with scrapbooking since I've been back from my vacation! There is just too much to do to get ready for Christmas! I have been getting pictures back from being developed, and I am pretty disappointed with most of the ones I took at night. My camera is dying on me, and I am so sad to see it go. I love it, but it was acting very strangly on our vacation, trying to open when we would close the front, and even having to readjust itself, when it opened up. Sometimes, I don't think that it is it focuses properly. And right at the end of the trip, my daughter dropped it onto stone. Now the flash is eskew. So, guess what I'm getting for Christmas?

From Florida to BRRRRRR!!!!

I am just back from Disney World, where I took a lot of pictures! I really tried to get spontanious pictures, and I don't know how well I succeeded. I also discovered the negative part of having a digital camera, when in just a second, my dear husband accidently erased all of the pictures we had ever taken on his digital video camera. We will say no more about it, but I do have to tell you that we would remember yet another great picture that we had on there, and feel a twinge of pain as we reminded each other of it.

Disney has a new program that allows you to purchase a CD of all of the professional pictures you have taken during your trip, giving you the rights to those pictures. We decided to do this, and now I have plenty of pictures of our whole family from the trip, and lots of us with the characters. It's nice to know that I will be in a lot of the pictures for this trip!

We had a wonderful time, and I didn't want to come home! Our resort was amazing, we had a lot of magical moments, and had time to swim, relax and visit almost all of our favorite characters! It's late, and I'm tired, but I just wanted to stop in to say, "Hi, and I'm back!" I'll put pictures up here and there, and will start working on that album as soon as I get all of the pictures!

My husband/photographer

I have to say, that although my husband doesn't take nearly the amount of pictures as I do, he usually does get great shots! I am going to brag on him, and show some of his shots off! I'm the photo person, always asking people to take our picture as a family, so that I can be in the album, too. I also tell Will when I want a picture taken of a certain thing. I've learned that all I need to do is ask, because he just isn't thinking through the camera like I am! That is not in any way a negative thing! This love of taking an insane amount of pictures that I have is (to quote Monk) "both a blessing and a curse". I feel as though I should always keep my camera close at hand so that I don't miss a thing! If I go to an event without my camera in tow, I am seeing the shots I missed. If I do have my camera, I am always thinking of pictures to take!

These pictures are : My daughter asleep in my arms, watching the Indiana Jones Stunt show, and my "King of the World" moment!

Scrap Happy!

Gramma's letter

A letter from my gramma had me quietly reflecting today. That is, after I bawled my eyes out. I seldom just burst into tears, although I tear up pretty often. I just love my Gramma so much and she basically was telling me that this was her last letter to me! Not because she is angry with me, but just because she is finding it so hard to write letters now. Since she moved across the country when I was in elementary school, we wrote to each other to keep in touch. We wrote often when I was younger, and after I had my girl 4 years ago, a lot less. Besides by that time, writing had already become difficult for her, due to her hands shaking and her eyes failing. But I just cannot fathom the void I will feel all the way across the states, because I only see her every couple of years now.
After I burst into tears, my daughter came to my side and she was crying, too, even though she didn't know why I was. I tried to tell her that I was just afraid my gramma wouldn't be around for very much longer. She went to get me a tissue, and we cried together for a minute. Later, I was replacing the pictures in the living room frames, putting Christmas photos in them and I came across a page of my gramma's last visit to Pennsylvania. So I showed it to my daughter, who probably doesn't remember Gramma, since she is so young.

The end of the letter was what got me. She wrote for me to save this letter, so that I'll have something to remember her.

My mom, an avid scrapbooker, is currently working on an album of Gramma's life. I'm so glad! I think that my gramma will really enjoy looking at it, and finding herself again in the black and white pictures of that young girl.

Will I save the letter? Absolutley. And I will most likely cry every time I read it. Will I need a letter to remember her? Not at all. She is in my heart. :)

Scrap happy

my invention

When I look back over years of photographs, I realize that the ones I like the best are either close ups or candid moments, when I caught that honest, open moment in time on film. I think that I have become a better photographer. The more pictures I take , the more I learn. I feel as though I still don't totally understand how to use my camera! If only I did! If only I had a camera attatched to my eyes, and I just had to touch my temple to capture the life I'm viewing, with out having to run and miss the moment. I missed one such moment this weekend. While watching the Steeler game with good friends, my daughter begged me to get the nutcracker down from the mantle so that she could show him to everyone. She has this fasination with him, and I think it's because of the Barbie "Nutcracker" ballet movie. So, we took him down to share him, and we noticed that one of our friends has similiar facial features to Mr. Nutcracker! Seriously, we held it up next to his face, and their profiles were nearly identicle! However, by the time I ran upstairs to get the camera and back downstairs, the moment was gone, our friend was embarrassed, and felt badly that we thought his nose was as large as the nutcracker's nose. If only I had the head camera!

Scrap Happy!

Pies and pictures

To be truthful, my life has been too busy to scrapbook, so I haven't! I did make my famous pear pie tonight, as well as a pumpkin pie, and I have almost completed all of my Christmas shopping! I'm in a pretty good position though. I realized, while talking to a friend, that I don't want to get too caught up in my album- making, because I won't have anything to do on the retreat in March! I don't take many pictures in November, however I do take a lot in December, when we annually visit Disney World and celebrate Christmas! So, this is the time of the year when my pictures pile up fast, and this is when I get behind!

Tip of the day: Make sure to store the blades for the cutting system properly. If you don't close them up, the blades can get bent slightly, which will affect the cutting. This seems especially true for the 12 inch trimmer. If you do damge your blades or find that they have lost their effectiveness, you can purchase refill blades.

Happy Thanksgiving and Happy Scrapping! (if you get time!)

Happy Thanksgiving!

My Open House was this weekend, so that was reason to break out the Christmas decorations. Oh, yes. I have already started the decorating! I also listen to Christmas music already! I don't care what anyone says, I have to stop myself from singing Christmas songs all year long, and when Christmas is this close, I just can't hold back the flood of carols any longer! I love the new Christmas stuff CM has come out with this year! My clients think I'm a little extreme to be planning what to wear on my daughter for the holiday pictures based on whether or not it will match the new die cuts and stickers! But I think I'm just thinking ahead! Ok, I'm not serious here!

I was booking this weekend, particularly Friday! I completed at least 20 pages over the 2 days! I'm pleased with myself! This is the 4th album I have done for this girl, so I can even recognize her from pictures of her back. I have made this album her last. It consists of piles of photos that I couldn't put into order by the date, because I didn't know it. It is turning out terrific, though. I did a wedding page using teal diamonds as a border to match the colors of the bridesmaids, of course. I did a border of pink with circles punched in it and put circles of water in each circle to go with the pool theme. I have created simple pages, quickly. I'm also trying to fit as many pics as I can onto one page, provided they go together. I want to try to finish all of the pictures I have left, in this final book. The neatest thing was finding my yellow brick house way in the background of one of the pictures! To match the floral arrangement on one page, I used a bunch of flowers and clumped them together. I try to match the colors of the people's clothing because many times, I'm not even sure what is happening in the pictures! I wasn't there! But it is coming along. How I would love to have it completed and delivered by Thanksgiving!

Textured paper

Hey guys! I finished that album, yay! The last 13 or so pages were easy, and I like them a lot more than most of the others. This was a trip album, so the scenery changed often. Still, I found myself using a lot of reds, greens and browns. I managed to use only one full sheet of paper, and a lot of scraps. I probably used one sticker per page, and more on some than others.

Tip of the Day: I am so excited about this one! I wanted to try and design textured paper to match the wood on the one page I was doing for this book. I cut a wide border out of CM paper and used my 12 inch trimmer and multipurpose tool. I laid the paper on the tool, just as I would if I were going to trim it, and I used the multi-tool to follow the groove all the way from the top of the paper to the bottom. (just as I would normally use the blade to cut it, only I used the tool instead, so it merely dented it!) I did this every centimeter, giving the paper a ridged effect. The hard part was adhering it to the page! I found that I needed to use a lot more tape runner to keep it from arching. But it really looks cool! I can see myself experimenting even more in the future!

Scrap Happy!

Taking 3rd

Hey everyone! I'm very excited to tell you that I took 3rd place in the library's photography competition! It was my first photography competition, so I'm very surprised and pleased! Other thatn that, I don't really have much to report on the scrapping end of things. I haven't gotten to my album this week at all. I will this weekend, as I have a workshop on Friday and an all day Open House on Saturday!

Scrap Happy!

Please come home soon

In a lazy moment today, my 4 year old went over to the cabinet where we keep her albums and chose one from among the 10 I have made chronicling her life. It was no easy feat for someone who weighs just under 35 pounds to pull out her 12x12 album, so I helped her and asked if she wanted to look through it together. We read it like a storybook; a storybook all about her. What better way to build a child's self esteem?

We turned to a page from April of this past year, 2006. It is a happy page, done in various shades of brown. The title, made to look like dogtags, reads," Fuzzy/ Hero". This is the page about my brother's homecoming from the war in Iraq. It was just a short visit, but this was the very first day of that leave, and you know how full the days look ahead on the very first day of a vacation or visit! The pictures show my brother and my daughter interacting, completely blissful to be together again. I didn't have much journaling on the page, and as I finished reading, she leaned over and gave his picture a kiss.

I don't have to tell you how it felt to witness this. There has never been a period of shyness when my daughter sees her Uncle, although they really don't get to spend much time together. I credit this to the pictures she has of them together, having a good time. They keep her familiar with him. The reason he joined the Army in the first place was because of her existance. He wanted her to be able to look up to him. He wanted to make something of his life. Well, he has made something of his life. And not only is his niece proud of him, his whole family is proud.

Scrap Happy

Bursting with NEW!

Over this weekend, I was able to complete 14 simple pages of the album I'm working on. It is hard for me to think of ideas for it! This past Friday's cozy workshop was when I completed all of the pages.

I also have been creating a digital scrapbook, but one that I can hold in my hands, and flip through it's pages. It's the new Creative Memories Storybook, and it is going to make my job of scrapping other people's photos obsolete! I'm very happy about that!The Storybook program is relatively easy to use, even for an amateur like myself. I'm not the best at computers! If I didn't love scrapbooking so much, this would be the way to go. It is a lot faster, and the books end up being so much thinner and lighter than an album. Still, there is something thereputic about designing, punching, cutting, cropping and sticking those page elements and pictures on the page with your hands!

I know it feels like spring is really far away right now, but I have already opened up the sign up for the retreat in March! I have gotten a lot of favorable response, and one person signed up yesterday. If you have not been to a workshop, then you don't know a lot of the details about my very first retreat! I'm so excited about it! We will have our own building, which means we can scrap in our pajamas if we so desire! It's about an hour away, on beautiful grounds! It is the most peaceful place. (sigh) Each of us will have our own room and private bath. Each room has access to a balcony or deck. The retreat is from Friday, March 9th and all day Saturday, March 10th, 2007. We will discuss what to do about dinner on Friday later, but all of Saturday's meals will be provided. The retreat houses 9, and since I'm also going, that leaves 8 spaces! It's first come, first going! Once we fill all of the spots, (which I'm sure we will) the option of staying in the dorm style rooms will be there, but you will be in a different building. Reserving your spot in the retreat house is easy! Simply come by and pay the $85 and write your name down. Then you will be paid in full! There will be exclusive gifts given out, and I promise that you will leave with your soul uplifted, memories made and many pages scrapbooked!

Scrap Happy!

Make an album for yourself!

I got to work on the album I am making for someone else last night. Actually, I cropped pictures. Although she had given me the photos in order, with post its stating the date, I am still having trouble with this album! It is simply HARD to do someone else's album! For instance, when all of the photos don't fit on a page, I know which ones of my own I can live without and exclude them from the album. I don't know which pics other people could do without!

Secondly, I create albums in packages, starting with the most simple one which only includes the album and no extra pages. She has given me a box of pictures, but doesn't want to add to the page amount. When I told her they wouldn't all fit, she said that was fine, just to pick the ones to put in. This is hard, once again. It is just hard to make other people's decisions for them.

The good news is that I have only one book to do after this one! YAY! Now that Creative Memories has the Storybooks, I no longer feel that I need to provide this feature in my business. Now I can focus on my daughter's books and when hers are kept current, I might be able to get back to the albums I had started for my husband and I! I am actually thinking of using the Storybooks for us as well, and putting my favorite pictures into a Storybook, so that when my daughter takes her 45 albums with her as she goes, I'll have something as well.

Scrap Happy!

Harvest Party

Yesterday evening, I took my daughter to a harvest party! It was so much fun! I couldn't believe how big it was. Thinking that we would only stay there for a little while, and get home for bedtime, I was greatly mistaken! We were there until closing, and my little one still didn't want to leave!

I took along my video camera, knowing that with all of the running around, it might be impossible to get a good picture of my daughter, and that I could toss whichever pictures didn't turn out, rather than wasting my film. That is exactly what happened, although I did find myself taking even more pictures than normal, knowing that I could pick and choose from the best!

The party had carnival style games, such as basketball, ski-ball, fishing and pick a duck. At each booth, they also gave out candy. They also had candy hidden in a huge amount of leaves, which the kids took turns going through! On top of that, they had air filled giant slides, and bouncy houses, bingo, free food, drinks and funnel cakes, and face painting! They had separate sections for preschoolers and older kids, but since my daughter is 4, she was able to participate in many things. My favorite thing there was the life sized Candyland game! Kids drew giant, colored cards, and moved themselves instead of a token, along a game board by jumping from one colored square to the next! The candy props were higher than my daughter's head! Best of all, near the end, the cards all say to go to the candy house, where of course, the kids pick some candy. Since my daughter was first, I think she felt like she won. It was created in a way to make all the kids playing feel like winners! When I asked my girl what was her favorite thing about the party, the answer was not at all what I expected to hear! She said," Eating chips with you, Mommy."

Editor's note! All these pictures were accidentally erased by my husband with one wrong push of the button! They live on only in my head!

Tip of the Day: Christmas is near! This is the time to beat the rush and get your personalized Christmas cards printed. Sam's club prices look pretty good, and I have used Walmart in the past, and was pleased with both the quality and the value.

Scrap Happy!

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!