From the He{art}

Can It Really Be Over Already?

2009-01-04T21:31:00.007-05:00

My vacation that is. I can't believe that two weeks flew by so quickly and I'm headed back to work tomorrow. I could definitely use another two weeks, but I suppose that is just not going to happen. I am a slight bit disappointed in my productivity over the past two weeks. I wanted to spend much more time creating than I actually did, but here are two LOs that I managed to put together at the crop this past Friday.

The first LO was inspired by a my local Scrapbook Meetup's December sketch challenge, which was provided by Julie. Julie was also an integral part in getting this LO complete. After hours of cutting out the flowers and pushing them around the page and never being completely satisfied with how they looked, she was able to come over and within a matter of seconds, it all miraculously came together. Thanks Julie. Now if only I could channel her creativity on command . . .

The second LO also did not come out exactly as planned. It still feels somehow unfinished, but at least for now I have to walk away from it and accept it for what it is. If I don't call it done at some point, I will obsess about it for days (weeks?) and never move on. I am trying to accept that not every LO will be a masterpiece, and none will ever hang in the Louvre, so I really need to cut myself some slack and find the balance between wanting to create something amazing and inspired, and completing more than one LO per month because I am never satisfied.

I am going to be participating in more challenges, and give myself more deadlines for completion, as a ploy to try and force myself to create more and complete more. I am hoping that once I get into a serious scrap mode I will be both motivated and productive.

I'd love to hear what others do when they are stuck in a scrapping funk. How do break out if it? Where do you go for inspiration?

Happy New Year

2008-12-31T17:44:00.052-05:00

Happy 2009 everyone. At lot has happened since I've last posted. We've actually had a bit of snow here in NY, too bad it didn't stick, but it sure was pretty while it lasted.

It's been a crazy couple of weeks, and I must admit, as much as I love the holidays, I'm glad that they are over. As wonderful as they are, they are always over way too quickly, and I am left exhausted and wondering where the last month of my life went and how did Christmas disappear in a blink of an eye. Good thing I managed to snap off a few photos so I have some proof that holiday actually happened.

I'm glad I had some extra time off this week to spend at home with my son, my goddaughter and her sister. We spent a day in the city, and while nothing we planned turned out the way we wanted it to, we still had a great time. We went to three different ice rinks, and never skated. We went to buy tickets to see The Little Mermaid on Broadway, and wound up at the Christmas Spectacular at Radio City Music Hall. We wanted to see all of the windows decorated for Christmas, and only made it to Bergdorf Goodman's. We went to FAO Schwartz and the NBA store and I managed to make it out of there without spending a dime (not an easy feat). We roamed around Central Park and had dinner at Planet Hollywood. I came home freezing, utterly exhausted, and so glad we had that day together.

Along with ringing in the new year, I have decided to recommit myself to taking a photo a day for the next 365 days. In doing so, I thought I would purchase the now sold out Project 365 kit designed by Becky Higgins and sold by Creative Keepsakes.

I have to admit, the experience was a nightmare. The kit went on sale yesterday at 9 o'clock MST. The much hyped project was heavily advertised, blogged about, and apparently highly coveted. I logged on to CK's website at precisely 9am, along with a gazillion other people, and the site was just slammed. It simply could not handle the traffic: pages wouldn't load, everything timed out, it took more than a half an hour for me to check out only to receive a message that my credit card was declined. I thought, "That's impossible." So I started over with a different credit card. Now the website didn't recognize my login information and I had to re-register. This was of course in addition to a repetition of all of the original problems. Well, the second time around I managed to check out successfully, and I thought the whole annoying situation was over, well I was wrong. Then I checked my e-mail. I had two in my inbox from CK, both confirming my order - one for each credit card transaction. Then I kept reading. My original credit card was charged twice (and apparently, according to my credit card company, CK attempted to charge my card 5 times and they rejected the subsequent attempts, which resulted in the denial message), and the second credit card had not been charged at all - in fact, the email confirmation showed that the kit cost $0. What?!?!??? So I called the customer service number at the bottom of my e-mail. Busy. Called back. Busy. This went on for a half an hour. When I finally got through I was was sent directly to the holding queue. After an hour on hold I was disconnected and never called back. Beck Higgins has a post on her blog acknowledging the fiasco, and claims that I should have a zero charge receipt since this item was a pre-order, but I know I was charged not once, but twice, on at least one credit card. It is clear that there was actually no one manning the phones (which is tragic for the international customers as they were instructed that the only way they could order this kit was by phone - if you actually read the posts, some of them waited on hold for as long as 4 hours, racking up a long distance bill, and ultimately not speaking to anyone or ordering the kit), and customer service is completely unhelpful today as well. For some reason they are incapable of telling me how many kits I will be charged for, and on top of that, I have been informed that if I am charged for/sent more than one kit, I will not be able to return the extras - even though it is their fault that I would be receiving the extra kits. This is not the way a responsible company works. Through reading the posts and other blogs, I have come to learn that this is not the first time CK has mishandled their sales. Considering this item is a pre-order, for a project that we are supposed to begin on January 1st, I am not sure why orders could not have been placed last month - or even in November - so that CK would really know how many kits to have manufactured, so that their website would not have been overrun and ultimately crash, so that they would not have so many dissatisfied customers, and ultimately, so that they would have made more of a profit. It really is a shame, this kit was a matter of convenience for me. I have a more than adequate stash and could have created my own Project 365 kit, but laziness drove me to want this product, and it wound up costing me in both time and money. The sad thing to me is that I don't believe that CK has learned anything from this mess, and history will only serve to repeat itself once the next must have kit is released.

What I should have done was instantly exit out of the CK website, and head over to Cathy Zielske's website and went with her idea of pictures and journaling in handmade mini books, one month at a time. She calls her project the "Month of Super Short Stories" tag book. A complete tutorial, including step by step instructions, a list of supplies that she used, and a downloadable template so you can make your own tags, can be found here. Her initial post only had printable tags for the few months of the project, there is another post here that includes a downloadable tag for every month. And here are a couple of pics taken from her website of her completed project.

Other good New Year project ideas come by the way of Valerie and Janna of Got Sketch fame. These two inspirational ladies have embarked on a new adventure with their Got Crafts website. Some of the projects that you will find there are Valerie Salmon's Desktop Calendar, and Janna Wilson's Dates to Remember perpetual calendar book.

Also new in the world of scrapbooking, Basic Grey has revealed their new line, Bittersweet:

I think Bittersweet is an appropriate name for this line as I usually anxiously await new product from Basic Grey, but I have to admit, I'm a little tired of pink and brown and am less than inspired by these papers. Sadly, I can also safely predict that I will soon own tons of this paper because I belong to several kit clubs and I'm fairly certain that this will be the new "it" line that everyone will include in their monthly offerings. So I suppose that I had better learn to love it, or at the very least, start planning on LOs I can use it on. I know Valentine's Day is coming, but we are not so much the lovey dovey Cupid fan club type of couple. After 16 years together, if I had questions about my BF's feelings for me, a box of chocolates and a not-so-cheap date would not be so convincing. And since my son is definitely not a girl, and doesn't appreciate his picture on feminine LOs, not so useful to me for scrapbooking the boy. Oh well, c'est la vie, I'm sure this neither the first nor the last line of product that I am not totally in love with. Too bad the industry does not cater to me.

Speaking of the industry not catering to me, the new Prima line designed by Adrienne Looman, was definitely not created with me in mind. It's called the Rebellious Collection, and I have posted only a few examples of the line, to see all of the new products that will be available after winter CHA, and for her LO examples using this line, click here.

Finally, if you need some inspiration to jump start your scrapbooking this year, Page Maps has posted their January sketches and sample LOs. I am off to a crop, so hopefully the next post will have some finished LOs. All the best in 2009!

Crop Night

2008-12-12T09:50:00.003-05:00

Tonight's crop night for twenty of us gals from the Manhattan Scrapbooking Meetup Group. I'm hoping to be as productive as I was the last time and get 3 LOs done by the end of the night, but I would also like to put together a few mini albums for the Sunshine Project, and I'm working on a scalloped chipboard album that I have been making for a friend for over a year now - so we'll see what I actually get done.

What I have already accomplished today is a little shopping. Scrappopotamus is having a 50% off sale on everything in their entire store, so I stocked up on some Prima Lollipops that I am loving these days. Use coupon code "50_off" (no quotation marks) at checkout to get your discount.

I also stopped by Hambly, who is offering a 10% off your entire, free shipping on purchases over $50, and they are including free goodies with every purchase made by December 18th. Enter the code "Holiday 10" (again, no quotation marks), to get your discount there. Also, if you've never check out their blog, now's a great time - lots of inspiration from their DT for the holidays.

Hopefully I'll be back here tomorrow with tons of completed projects to share.

Have A Great Weekend!

Sick Day

2008-12-10T17:14:00.024-05:00

Well, it looks like I have the flu, so I am home sick today. Tomorrow doesn't look much better either, I need all the rest I can get so I can be well enough to go to a much need crop on Friday night. I am, however, trying to pull it together to get to a Ladies Night Out event at the Portrait Bug tomorrow.

I'd like to thank my super talented friend, Janis, who made me this wonderful Christmas decoration and gave it to me at our holiday party this past Friday. Janis, I love our work, and this is absolutely beautiful. Thank you!

I also received a gift from our famed organizer, Cheryl, who apparently knows me better than I know myself. For some reason, whenever I meet up with Cheryl, whether it be on crop night or otherwise, my cell phone dies. So Cheryl was able to find something that I actually need, a Zap Recharge-It-All. This awesome little gadget fits in my pocketbook and can recharge my phone without being plugged in (assuming that I remember to recharge the charger). Thanks Cheryl, you may truly be a lifesaver some day.

So I've started off this Season of Giving on the receiving end, which is fabulous, but I would also like to be on the giving end. Operation Santa is in full swing here in NYC. It is a program run by the US Post Office where you can pick up letters that were written to Santa by children from low income families and send them the items that were on their wish list to Santa. For me, it is a great way to give back during the holidays. We get so caught up in buying the latest and the greatest for our children (remember the Tickle Me Elmo craziness), and we think nothing of forking over $60 or more for a single video game, but these kids are frequently asking for warm clothes and new shoes- and not only for themselves - but often for their sibling and even their parents as well. I always find myself wanting to take home all of the letters, but even I know my limitations. The hardest part of this for me is deciding which letters I am giving back (the post office gives you a bunch of letters to read at a table, you choose the ones you want to keep, and then you give the rest back). I always feel like I am deciding which child is more "worthy," and it breaks my heart that I can't buy presents for all of them. It is a truly worthy cause, because if Christmas is not about the children . . .

other way to give back this season is The Sunshine Album Project. The idea behind this project is to make mini scrapbooks/albums for a sick children that are the hospital. The albums are are supposed to help the kids, and their families, record this time in their lives. The requirements for the albums are as follows (taken from Deb's blog:

Albums should be no smaller than 4x4" and no larger than 8x8"
Albums should be simple, durable, and made of quality materials - they should be made strong enough to last
Albums should be appealing and positive
They should be made so that it is easy to add pictures and journaling
All embellishments should be glued/affixed down so that they are not a choking risk

They will be collecting albums until December 20th, so there is still time to get yours in the mail. I hope to get a few more done at our crop on Friday. If you live east of the Mississippi, e-mail Deb for information on where to mail the albums, deb314@hotmail.com. If you live west of the Mississippi, Angie is collecting albums for a hospital on that side of town, so e-mail her at sasmith2@wowway.com for her mailing address.

On another topic, for those of you who may be interested, Create My Keepsake has put out a Design Team call. But you have to get busy - all submissions are due by December 30th, and the new design team will be announced on January 8th. Here's all the info:

Requirements

CMK Design Team members will be asked to:

Commit to a 6-month term beginning January 1, 2009 with participation through June 30, 2009.
Design four (4) projects with our monthly CMK kit. The projects you create each month will be used to showcase the monthly CMK kit in our forum and galleries, in our monthly newsletter, and in other promotions as desired. Specific requirements and deadlines available upon acceptance.
Participate in 2-3 online CMK crops/events during the 6-month term.
Post question/poll threads in the daily forum and create a monthly contest challenge on a rotation with other design team members.
Post additional projects in their own personal design team gallery.
Participate in forum discussions on a daily basis to help facilitate the growth of our online community. The community involvement is very important to us here at CMK, so we ask that each member try their best to devote a few minutes to our forum and gallery every day.
Promote CMK to friends, family, and colleagues to help facilitate the growth of our kit club, our online store, our newsletter registration, our gallery and our forum.

Benefits

Create My Keepsake will provide the following to you as a design team member:

FREE products from our monthly CMK kit so you can develop and design your required monthly projects.
An additional 10% savings on all personal purchases.
One free shipping opportunity each month.
Recognition on our Design Team page along with links to your work in the gallery.
Recognitions in our forum and gallery along with the freedom to use the CMK design team logo on message boards and resumes.
Access to the private Design Team forum so you can trade tips, techniques, and project ideas with each other.

Guidelines

Design Team Guidelines:

Applicants must be at least 18 years of age on January 1, 2009.
Applications are open to everyone. International applicants are welcome. This is not an exclusive assignment. We accept applicants from other design teams including local, online, and/or manufacturer.
Previous design team experience is not required.
Submissions will be judged by the owners of Create My Keepsake and two additional judges for a total of four judges.
We will be selecting two individuals for the 2009 Winter/Spring CMK Design Team. We will be looking for designers with strong scrap booking, paper crafting, and photography skills.
Candidates must participate in the application process outlined below. We will make our selections no later than January 8, 2009. Selected team members will be notified via e-mail to confirm acceptance.
The formal announcement will be made in our forum on or before January 8, 2009.

How to Apply

So does this sound absolutely fabulous? We think so!! Here is how you can apply:

Create a kit from your personal stash of scrap booking supplies. Including…but not limited to…the 8 following categories: 3 cardstock, 6 patterned papers, 1 alpha, 1 rubons, bling/brads/buttons, chipboard/rubber charms/flowers, stickers/die-cut shapes/journaling cards, and ribbon/trim.
Provide a photo of your kit and 2-3 projects created from your kit by posting an entry on your blog.
Send an email to lisa@createmykeepsake.com with “CMK Design Team” in the subject line. Include your name, address, phone number, current designer responsibilities, CMK username, direct link to your CMK Design Team Call blog post, and a link to your favorite online gallery.

You can follow the online discussion about this DT Call at Create My Keepsake's forum.

One final tidbit before I crawl back into bed, if anyone is looking to renew, or start, a subscription to BHG's Scrapbooks Etc., now is as good a time as any. They currently have a Holiday Sale where they are offering year long subscriptions for $7. There are eight issues per year, so that's less than a dollar per issue - awesome deal in my opinion. You can check it out here.

Whew . . .

2008-12-06T22:56:00.083-05:00

What a week this has been. I have so much to share that I am sure this is going to be one loooooong post, so consider yourself warned.

Friday night was the holiday party that I hosted for our local scrapbooking meetup group. It was a blast, if I do say so myself. It has taken me all weekend (and two naps) to recover, but believe me it was all worth it. I set out to make sure everyone had a Happy Holiday season, and from what I can tell it was mission accomplished.

The night started with a little meet and greet with a toy soldier.

He was mildly amusing with his juggling skills, cards tricks and corny jokes. Oh yeah, and the wild eyed psychotic stare that is so fitting for a toy soldier???? I wish I had taken a picture of this guy before he changed into his costume, he has a mess of thick gray hair that stands about a foot high off of his head, and those fake eyebrows are just a bit thicker than his natural ones. Guess that'll teach me - next time I'll be sure to request photos of the actual performer before he shows up. No one seemed to mind though, and he did set the tone for an evening of controlled chaos and great fun.

As soon as the guests came in they were given four (free) raffle tickets , which represented the chance to win one of the four prizes shown below. The Photoshop Elements 7 prize came with the software, the book and a gift certificate for Jessica Sprague's class: Up and Running with Photoshop. The Sony camera came with a case and a 2GB Memory Stick. And then there was my favorite prize, a three month gift subscription to Studio Calico's Kit Club. I know I mentioned April and Scarlet in an earlier post, but their generosity deserves another mention. When I contacted these two amazing women about purchasing a gift subscription to give away at our Holiday Party, they upped the ante by donating eight Add-On Kits for me to give away as well. I can say that they were greatly appreciated by both me and those that won them. The contents of the kits were awesome so please, if you are considering joining a monthly club, check them out. Not only do I already subscribe and have never been disappointed, but they also have an amazing DT and their gallery is filled with inspiration - and hey, why not support those that support us. Scarlet and April, once again a huge thank you!

One of our members, had to leave the party early because she wasn't feeling well. At the last minute, I remembered the raffles, and told her to leave her tickets with me. I had Santa (did I mention we also had a visit from St. Nick) pull the raffle tickets and hers was the first one called, she was also the second, and the fourth. Good thing that I had set rules form the beginning that no one could win more than one raffle prize. I can't image what the odds are, and I'm sure someone more math savvy than me could figure it out, but all I know is that it was incredible that out of 37 women, the same one had her ticket pulled 3 out of 4 times. She was ultimately awarded the first prize that was raffled off, which was the photo printer, and hopefully winning helped her feel better.

Santa also helped hand out the Kringle gifts that we all brought, and then there was the tray game. I filled a tray with over 30 scrapbooking items and placed the tray on Santa's lap. Everyone had to line up single file and had a few seconds to walk past Santa and remember everything they could that was on the tray. Then I gave them one minute to write down all the items they could remember, the person who remembered the most items won everything on the tray - there were smaller prizes for the second and third place.

We took a short break for some more food and wine, and then the torture - I mean the games - continued. There was a scrapbook word search that I created here. Everyone had one minute to wind as many words as they could, and again the top three won prizes. There was also scrap bingo,some homemade scratch-off lottery tickets,and a round of trivia questions about holidays around the world. Here are pics of some of the prizes that were won:

After an hour with of photo ops and circus tricks, we said goodbye to our soldier, and hello to food and fun. I decided that we would jump right in and start with the games and prizes while we had our cocktail hour. Below are photos of just some of the prizes that guests could win by playing Scrapbook Word Search, Bingo, and Holiday Trivia. I also filled a tray and with tons of scrapbooking items. Santa held the tray on his lap while the guests were given a few seconds to walk past it and remember as many items as they could. They then had 1 minute to write it all down.

And then there was the LO contests. In the spirit of encouraging some pre-party scrapbooking (since there wouldn't be any time for cropping during the party), I challenged our participants to enter a few LOs contests, the incentive of course being that if they did they were eligible to win a prize. They could enter any/all of the contests with the only requirements being that they had to use at least one photo, include journaling, and use at least two pieces of paper and one embellishment. Entries could be of any size, digital/traditional/or hybrid, and could be a one or two page spread - their choice. Here are the categories they had to choose from:

1. Taken from the Effer Dares: Create a layout based on Dare 114 WRONG. As in "that is SO wrong." As in something that really drives you crazy or something you said that was so bad you can't believe you said it. Whether it's a silly pet peeve or something truly offensive, tell us what's diving you nuts these days.

2. Create a layout with a holiday theme. It can be any holiday (not just Xmas, Hanukkah, Thanksgiving, etc.) past or present. It can be about why you like or dislike or certain holiday.

3. Taken from One Little Word, create a layout based on their Word Up Challenge #36: CHANGE "to become different in some particular way, without permanently losing one's self or its former characteristics or essence." Change is inevitable for all of us, it may be a small thing or might be something really big, but we will all go through lots of changes throughout our lives. Some changes we might not even be ready for but we will have to go through it anyways. Change is good for all of us.... It helps us grow, it helps us become who we are.... it defines us....The biggest change that I have been through lately is the arrival of our grandson! This has been such a good change for me but a big change all the same.... It feels like not so long ago that I was going through the same things as my daughter is now.... plus going from 'mommy' to 'grammy' seemed like a big deal! What kind of change are you going through? Big changes? Small? Share.

4. Taken from the book Cut Loose: Break the Rules of Scrapbooking: Create a layout based on the idea that your life is not serious all of the time. Look at your life with a little humor and get a new perspective on daily life. Create a scrapbook page showing off your affection for an everyday object (the example layouts in the book included a woman's love for her Kitchen Aid mixer, another woman's quickly multiplying dust bunnies, and a third woman's tribute to her running shoes). These layouts should not include pictures of people, but of the everyday object you are honoring.

5. Create a scrapbook page based on the lyrics to a song. It can be any song, from any genre, any era. The only requirement (aside form the general rules mentioned above), is that some of the lyrics from the song appear somewhere on your page (it could be in the title, the journaling, somewhere). If you are interested in more scrapbooking challenges based on music check out the Scrapping the Music Blog.

I was amazed at how many of our members found time to submit LOs, some even participated in all five. I wanted this contest to be fun, and for no one to feel as if their work was being judged based on skill or my personal design aesthetic. I also wanted to introduce some of our newbies to a few of the inspirational challenge sites and books that are out there and to get some of our veterans out of their comfort zone and try something new. Well it worked, the LOs came rolling in and for each one created, a raffle ticket was given out. At the end there were five winners, one for each category, randomly chosen from the raffle tickets. Each won a $50 Gift Certificate to a different company:

With a continued showing of generosity, the owner of the Portrait Bug, Kim, donated both the $50 gift certificate as well as 5 classes to the prize pool of the evening. She also attended our party, joined in playing all of the games, and let us know about a free ladies night/wine & cheese event that will be happening at the store this Thursday, December 11th, from 6-8pm. Anyone interested in attending should bring their camera and/or their memory card with them.

Our resident Stampin' Up Demo, Chi, also donated a Stampin' Up catalog, and is going to cover the cost of shipping & tax so that the winner will have full use of $50 certificate.

The finale of the evening came when I asked for three volunteers to give up everything they won for a chance to win something better, or possibly nothing at all. Well, I quickly found my three lucky ladies. One went home with all of her winnings, the winnings of the other two ladies, and all of the paper that had not been won by anyone during the other games (about 100 sheets of patterned paper). The next winner went home with Memory Maker's Slice and two additional design cards, but the big winner of the evening went home with a Cricut Expression and two cartridges. I think they were all happy they took the gamble. And really, everyone should have known better - was I really going to send someone home with nothing?

All in all, it was a fabulous evening. I must publicly thank Cheryl for continuing to provide us with a space to meet and crop, and for allowing me to orchestrate this madness without comment or concern. It was a wild night of laughs, scream, and even a few tears (of joy that is). It took me the better part of a month to get it all together, but I would do it all over again in a second (I think)!

December? . . . Already? . . . Really?

2008-12-01T20:31:00.048-05:00

I don't know why it is, but somehow every year December's arrival catches me off guard. It's not like I don't know that it's coming - I mean after all - it does happen at the exact same time every year, but here I am once again in complete and total shock that today is December 1st and I have no idea where 11 months have disappeared to. In addition to my disbelief that yet another holiday season has descended upon me, I am extra busy this week and I already feel like I'm smack in the middle of Hurricane Christmas that wont blow over until December 26th.

So what do I do when I am overwhelmed by a seemingly endless to do list, why I go blog surfing of course. One of my first stops today was over at Tim Holtz's blog. I was very excited to read that he is going to share another 12 Days of Tags with his readers.

If you didn't get a chance to check out his awesome tags last year, now is a great time to catch up. You can check them out here.

I then found a wonderful e-mail in my inbox from Label Tulip. Not only have they put their exclusive stamps up for sale in their boutique (their stamps are usually only available as part of their monthly scrapbooking kits), but they also have Grab Bags available for $18 (each bag contains paper and embellishments that have a total retail value of approximately $44 - that's a whoppin' 60% off), and last but certainly not least, they have put all of their past kits on sale for 40% off of the original asking price (you scroll down past the Grab Bags to see the kits). The stamps are only on sale until 12-10-08, but everything else will remain on sale until 12-31-08, or until they sell out.

And just when I thought it couldn't get better, it did. I am a big fan of Got Sketch's website and classes, so naturally I am on her mailing list. Well, today I received an e-mail from Valerie Salmon and Janna Wilson with a surprise announcement that they are offering a free mini class. Here's a copy of the email:

Introducing Got Sketch Mini!

It's a week-long class just for you, our Got Sketch supporters! Since this is the season for giving, we thought we'd give you our early Christmas present!It's our way of saying thank you. And yes, it is totally FREE!! So, go ahead and share the news with your fellow sketch fan friends. The more, the merrier! To those of you who have been curious but have yet to take one of our workshops, this is your chance to participate & get a glimpse of what our classes are about. It's a sampling of our Got Sketch workshop -- minimized into a 7-day program. We know you will enjoy it!

Here's what you can expect:

TWO top-notch 12x12 sketches from Valerie Salmon & Janna Wilson
The sketches will include a sample layout, supply list, instructions, and project notes which are delivered in high-quality printable PDF files
1 Sketch Challenge on Day 1
1 Tip & Trick Sheet
An interactive community
Inspirational gallery from your classmates
A Live Chat session with Valerie, Janna, & community members
Prize Giveaways
A self-paced class: No deadlines, No homework, No tests
The community will open on Wednesday, December 3, and ends December 10

So go check them out, what do you have to lose, it's a free class after all.

Speaking of free, I downloaded some awesome digital freebies this morning from Sueli Colbert's website. Just click on the flashing "Download" icon underneath the images you want to open. They download in a zip file that you have to extract to your computer. All of the images shown are included in the download as separate files so they can be used alone or combined however you like. I know I will get plenty of use out of these goodies (you can either click on the pictures or the link above to access her website):

There are obviously some things that I am just not going to get around to doing today since I spent several fabulous hours in front of my computer , and although I don't regret the time I spend online, I do regret not having found the time to prep for Ali Edward's Daily December Album. I have known who Ali Edwards is for quite some time, and a frequent her blog, but I was somehow incredibly oblivious to this project until very recently when my scrappin' buddy/meetup organizer, Cheryl, told me about it. Well as soon as I found her web page detailing the project I thought, "Great, I'm in." I had recently purchased a Bind-It-All from the Portrait Bug, and I thought, "This is fantastic, I have a reason to use my new toy and in the end I'll have an adorable memory book from this holiday season." So, if you read my first post a few days back you may recall my very first entry where I confessed to being a chronic procrastinator, so needless to say, there is no book ready to go so I can easly jot down the daily happenings during this holiday season - oh yeah - and the Bind-It-All has never even made it our of the box. So instead of giving up, I have had to compromise. I am keeping a record with snippets of daily events in a cheap spiral notebook (the kind you find for $1 at Michael's), and once the holiday season is over I will transfer it to a handmade book. I am on vacation from work all of the days between Christmas and New Year's, and I think putting the book together during that time will be a nice way to reflect on recent events, and maybe - just maybe - I will be able to appreciate the holiday more since it all seems to be over in a flash and all I remember is 25 days of exauhstion.

Are any of you working on Ali's December project or do you have another special project planned specifically for the holiday season? I'd love to hear how you make it through the madness and still find time to capture the memories.

Well, I am finally going to have to go and get some offline work done. I have printed out a copy of my Scrapbooking Meetup's December Sketch Challenge (didn't I just finish the one for November), so I am adding that to the things I have to do before I go back to work on Thursday. I still have a gazillion things to do to get ready for our Holiday Party this Friday night, but more on that later - I don't want to ruin any of the surprises I have planned for any of our members that may be reading this blog.

The Impossible Becomes Possible

2008-11-30T22:22:00.028-05:00

Woo Hoo! I actually did it, I said I wanted to finish 3 LOs at yesterdays crop, and that's exactly what I did. Just to give you an idea of how monumental of an achievement this was, our meetup's organizer, Cheryl, posted the following comment on our message board:

"Many people were very productive including Ellie who - sit down for this - finished 3 layouts...and before 2am." I guess my reputation for being a scrapper slacker proceeds me.

Before posting my LOs, I would like to state for the record that I have not been able to perfect taking photographs of my LOs - so any tips on how to do it better would be greatly appreciated. I always seem to be just slightly askew so that I can't crop my photos to a perfect square. I have been coveting a large format scanner for a long time, and I going to ask Santa for one, but since I don't see making a $2500+ investment anytime soon, I suppose I will just continue to go through life with slightly crooked pictures of my LOs. I have, however, heard a rumor that our new LSS, Portrait Bug, is going to have a large format scanner available to their customers, so I am waiting patiently with crossed fingers for them to have all aspects of the store up and running (they have their shop and their portrait studio open for business, but the rear of the store that will be for classes and tools for customer use is still under construction).

The first LO I finished last night was my contribution for our meetup's November sketch challenge. This month's LO was based on a sketch provided by Julie Balzer:

And here's my interpretation:

My next LO is of my son and my BF. The pictures are a few years old, but since I don't scrap in any type of chronological order, it really doesn't matter to me. I used to stress out over catching up on scrapbooking over a decade of photos and preserving every tucked away memory for future generations - I've since gotten over those ideas and it was quite liberating. I've given myself permission to scrap what I want when I want, and although I do want to have a record of our lives, I also want scrapbooking to be an enjoyable creative outlet. I don't want to be constrained by a timeline or feel bogged down by something I love. I am just going to go through life scrapping whatever suits my fancy that day, and if every last photo I have doesn't make it into a book, I still think I will end up with a decent representation of our lives together and I will have enjoyed the process along the way.
By the way, there is no white paper backing this LO. The "paper" is actually a clear, rubbery sort of material from KI Memories new line, Sheer Delights.

The last photo is a tribute to a friend that I lost in a car accident three years ago this January. We were friends for 18 years and it was a huge shock when he was killed. I don't believe in scrapping only holidays, birthdays, vacations, and the other similarly typical "happy" events that we usually scrapbook about. Now don't get me wrong, I don't think that these events are unimportant, and I do scrap them as well, but life is not a series of joyous events and fond memories. I think that it's important to document the parts of life that a crappy - that includes everything from bad hair day, horrible bosses, and broken washing machines to deaths, divorce, and other times of heartache. The good and the bad is what represents our real lives and our whole selves, and that is what I want my scrapbooks to represent. I also think this leaves a better representation of ourselves to future generations who will look to our scrapbooks as a way to get to know us even though they will never get to meet us in person. It also sends the message that life can be rough sometimes, but we got through it, and so can they.

What do you normally scrap about? Do you ever document daily life, unhappy occasions, something else that would be considered nontraditional?

Crop Day

2008-11-29T10:38:00.004-05:00

We'll I'm off to an 18-hour crop with my local scrapbooking meetup group. My goal is to complete three one-page LOs by the end of the night. I figure 6 hours per LO should be enough time, but since I don't normally finish even one single page, this is a tougher challenge than you might think. Hopefully tomorrow you will be able to come back here and see several pics posted of all my hard work.

Have a great day!
Ellie

Happy Thanksgiving

2008-11-27T06:42:00.017-05:00

Those that know me, know that I am a great procrastinator. I think about creating things (like this blog) and in my mind they become masterpiece - but sadly most my project never make the leap from brain to the real world. My scrapbooking is the running joke amongst the members of my local scrapbooking meetup group, it's not my level of skill, my style, or my design abilities - it's the fact that I own more scrapbooking supplies than most of the members combined ad I rarely complete a page during the course of a 15 hour crop. I am perfectly happy to drag 50 lbs and 3 bags of stuff with me and spend the entire time just chatting it up with the girls - then - somewhere around 4 am a burst of inspiration hits, I spend the next 3 hours pushing paper and embellishments around a 12x12 page until I finally leave with a page that is three-quarters of the way finished and a claim that I'll just put the finishing touches on it at home.

This blog has mostly suffered the same fate, first I thought about starting it for about year, then I spent another year taking about starting it, next came changing the blog's name and design countless times followed by several posts that were started but never completed or published. So why now? What has motivated me to finally get it together and dedicate myself to this blog? Well, several things:

1. I have always had things to be thankful for, but through a series of events earlier this year, I was remind of how much I really do have and how thankful I should be. So what better day to start this blog than on Thanksgiving. With a renewed commitment to giving, creating, and sharing - and hopefully a bit less of the procrastination - I've decided to take the plunge and become part of the blogging community.

2. I have been the recipient of some incredible generosity that I felt I needed to share. I have been planning a Holiday Party for our local scrapbooking group where I'll have numerous games, contests, and giveaways - everyone who comes will leave with at least one scrapbook related gift - and some will leave with an awesome scrapbook related gift (more about this in a later post - I don't want to spoil the surprises for those that are coming).

That being said, I do have to tell you about some of the things that will be given away. In trying to come up with the prizes for one of the LO contests I planned, I decided that a gift subscription to Studio Calico would be a great gift. I already subscribe and love their kits and aside from being an awesome prize, I thought this would be a perfect way to introduce some of our newer members (and some of the veterans) to the world of kit clubs and to the different scrapbook products that are out there. When I contacted Scarlet at Studio Calico about purchasing a gift certificate as a prize she immediately responded that she and April would like to donate a few Add-On kits that I can use as giveaways. I have to say that I was floored. I could not thank them enough. Neither one of them know me, the members of our group, or had even had any communication with me before this. I was so overwhelmed by their offer and wanted everyone to know how generous they were. How generous? Well I would have been happy had they sent me one Add-On kit, but Tuesday night I came home to an incredible package with eight kits to give away. Amazing! I just thank these two ladies enough.

If that wasn't enough, I have to add Kim from the Portrait Bug to my list of generous donors. Here in NYC we have been long deprived of a LSS, that was until just yesterday when the door to the Portrait Bug (scrapbooking boutique and photo studio) opened its doors. I paid a visit to Kim last night to see the completion of the long awaited store (she has suffered numerous construction set backs) and to pick up a few last minute items to give away at our holiday party. Kim generously offered to donate five classes for me to give away. Thanks Kim!

3. I "plan" to participate in Julie's 52 Week Project. I am hoping that this blog with force me to continue my commitment to the project. I was a late comer to Project 365 (I am basing my year of photos on the school calendar - September to August - since I didn't start this project in January), and I have found it difficult to keep up with. Just for the record, I haven't given up on the photo-a-day thing yet, but I am thinking that Julie's idea of creating something once a week will be much more manageable, and feel like less of a chore and more like fun.

4. I recently took an amazing (free) class with Jessica Sprague called "Stories in Hand." In this class Jessica shared her methods for capturing experiences, memories, and moments so that we could use them later to tell our stories. I plan to use what I learned in her class to increase the amount of my journaling in scrapbooking and to post regularly on this blog. Jessica has provided me with some much needed inspiration and a wonderful system for turning my thoughts into the written word. Thanks Jessica!

5. With all of this energy just bursting inside and my creative mojo rearing to go, I am still in need of frequent inspiration, and that has been the ultimate motivation for this blog. I have met some wonderful and creative people through my interests in scrapbooking, rubber stamping and mixed media arts. I am hoping that my real life experience will extend to the Internet. I look forward to the ideas, creativity, motivation, and friendship that can be shared through blogging. I think this blog will change and grow as my journey through sharing on the Internet helps me change and grow. I feel as if I am finally embarking on a long awaited adventure, and I couldn't be more excited.

Thanks for stopping by, I hope you'll stick around and come along with me for what I hope will be the ride of a lifetime!

Happy Thanksgiving,
Ellie