Disney on the table

Friday night found me in my workshop room, alone, with 2 empty tables and a box of Disney pictures. I used the power sort system and with only one break, (to put my 4 year old to bed) I sucessfully laid out the whole vacation that evening. No easy task considering I'm going to have an entire album dedicated to this trip! I'm hoping to get a lot accomplished on my retreat. It's coming up soon!

Tip of the Day: How many nights do I spend sitting in front of my TV, wasting my life? I feel that way as I get up to go to bed. Lazy. I felt so good sorting those pictures! It was time I could have used to surf the internet, watch TV, waste my life. But because I used the time to sort my pictures instead, I felt that I had accomplished something! It's such a good feeling!

Scrap Happy!

Somebody Stop Me!

I love this picture! I am slowly learning the best way to use my digital camera. I have only had it 2 months, be patient! I took this picture without a flash. Sometimes, I think that makes the picture turn out blurry, unless my subject holds very still. I have also begun to send my pictures to Snapfish after I take about 100 pictures. Yes, I am taking OH so many more pictures now, and even though I'm not keeping all of them, I am keeping a lot more than I used to take! I'm into the "photography" part of picture taking like I have never been before! The more pictures I take, the more I learn. With film, I found that I kept track of how many pictures I took of different events, because you run out of film after 24 pictures, and that kept me in check. Not anymore! Now I take 100 pictures of one event sometimes! What I need to do, is start tackling that mountain of photos I have acquired!

Tip of the Day: If you have a digital camera, seriously think about getting the Memory Manager program from Creative Memories. It will store all of your photos and keep track of which ones you order!

Storybook!

Well, I finally took the time and did one of those Creative Memories online albums. You create the album online, and they send it to you all completed! It turned out so great! I can't wait to show everyone! The reason I decided to do this, was because I took so many pictures of the Holidays this year. I knew I didn't need to get all of them printed to scrap in my daughter's album, but at the same time, I wanted to have the pictures. They would have taken up so much space in an album, but in the book I did, I could put so many pictures on one page, just by using the collage format. Of course, I chose to make most of my pages less crowded. It took me hours to do this book, mostly because I am such a perfectionist! But I was so happy that I had spent so much time on choosing the different fonts and letter sizes once I was holding the completed book! I'm so glad I did it! I have tried to put one of the pages on here to show you, but it doesn't work! So here is one of the pics that I told you about in "Flash".

Winter

I finally dusted off the old photo album and did a few pages (minus journaling) the other day. I found that I had a lot of trouble getting back. I wasn't as able to make colors go together, and was only happy with one or 2 of the pages. Maybe that will change once I see them again. I do have to say that the ones I was happy with were the last 2 I did, so I might have been warming up!

It's been so cold and snowy here, and I think that other people have been scrapping a lot. I say this because I usually have someone contact me daily lately, wanting Creative Memories products!

I've been finding photographs more and more in everyday objects. Just the way the sun shone in through the window on my Valentine's roses, my daughter's handprints in the fogged glass on the door, close ups of the frozen bushes in our yard....I love taking several shots and then deleting the ones I don't need.

Tip of the day: I had pictures of a party we went to, and I didn't want to do anything more than a one page spread, even though I had more pictures than would fit on one page. I wanted to make sure everyone was pictured, but I made sure to put a shot of my daughter and her buddy right in the middle, matted so that it became the focus for the page. I included tabs to do bullet journaling, because that's really all I have room for and all it needs, since this is my daughter's album.

Scrap Happy!

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!