From the He{art}

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?

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

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