Thoughts Along Life's Highway

Cleaning House

I’m cleaning out my scrap space… since so much of my scrapping is digital nowadays, I’m going to clear out some of the “traditional” stuff I’ve got that take up a lot of space and don’t get used very often.

I know most of you that read this blog are also digital scrapbookers, but I thought I’d let you know what I’m getting rid of just in case you’re interested or know someone who might be interested.

If you think you want something, email me and we can work something out.

Quickutz Revolution Die Cutting Machine

$75 + shipping
This package includes the Die Cutting Machine, Train-style travel case, Moonlight alphabet die set

I think I may have used this once or twice. It’s practically new.

I have the 12” extension plate, too, but can’t put my hands on it right now. If I find it, I’ll toss it in, too.

Let me know if you are interested!

del.icio.us Tags: scrapbooking,cricut,quickutz,quickutz revolution

Project Life check in

I thought I’d let you know how I’ve been doing with my Project Life project… or rather, doing but not doing….

or something like that.

I think I mentioned a while back that I’d purchased Becky Higgins’ Project Life kit.  I have every intention of using it, but life has been so crazy lately, not much is happening with it.

As a matter of fact, it looks like this:

How sad is that?

Of course, the pile isn’t all mine. That flowered album is Big Girl’s and from that binder up to the top is all the kids’ school work that they decided needed to be in my album and therefore could be stacked there instead of going through it and tossing what they didn’t want.  (Guess that means Mommy gets to sort it and toss it)

I have been really good about taking my pictures, though.  Just not very good at doing much with them after that – well, I guess I’m doing something – I’m putting them here.

I am still toying with the concept of doing some digitally, too.

I am enamored of “the monthly roundup” concept that Katie Pertiet does – and Cathy Zielske has these great templates that work well, too.

(She’s also doing Project Life – and I love how she is doing it)

The Shabby Princess is also doing something similar – I think she calls it Project Scrap.  Her idea is 2 pictures/week and then she offers a free template each month for you to plop your pictures in. And the templates are CUTE!

I had been thinking about doing Katie’s Roundup each month to compliment the Project Life pages – and had originally planned to get Cathy Z’s templates. But after finding the Shabby Princess’ templates, I may just go with those. They’re free, after all.

So, that brings me back to the progress, or lack of progress, with the project. I have done well with picture taking and with keeping tidbits of memorabilia from life. I still want to do better with capturing some news items and saving some more things from life – church bulletins, etc.

I am hoping to go to a weekend crop the first part of July and that is when I’m planning to catch up on my project.  That will be all I work on, so that should be plenty of time (and stuff) to work with!

In the meantime, I think I may give these digital options a try and see if I can do some monthly recaps – at least I’ll feel more like I’m accomplishing something… although, I have to admit, between this blog and my photo-a-day blog, I don’t really feel like I’m being terribly slack. I’m just capturing my memories in a different way.

What about you? What do you think?

A little progress

I had high hopes of scrapbooking this past week – or at least getting some scrapbooking in during the past three days.  Alas, life did not go according to plan, and neither did my muse.  It just wasn’t in me.

And then, I thought to myself that even though I didn’t “feel creative” I should just sit down and piddle a little with the pictures and see if I got inspired. After all, it’s been months since I’ve scrapbooked and I’m still working on 2010 pictures, for Pete’s sake. (whoever Pete is…)

So, I did just that.

Sat down, opened up my software to see where I’d left off, and before you know it, I’d managed to do six pages! That, along with, feeding kids, retrieving dogs who are escaping their invisible fence, troubleshooting my mom’s email account, answering the phone, well, you get the picture. 

The days of quiet solitude while I scrap are long gone.  But, the nice thing about digital scrapbooking is that I can do just that – scrap in between life’s little interruptions. It doesn’t mean I have to put all the mess away, or pray no one bumps my page in progress. Nope, I just hit the “save” button, take care of the urgent matter, and move right along.

Love it.

Anyway, here are the pages I’ve done: (most of the digital supplies are from the Daily Digi subscription I have. Best investment for high quality digital supplies, I tell ya.)

     

And as a special treat for you guys - I have uploaded the template for the two pages above to my 4shared account (Creative Memories StoryBook Creator Plus templates) for you to download!

 

 

It's not Instagram, but I like it

I don’t have an iPhone. Therefore, I don’t have Instagram. I love the Instagram photos I see online, but I’m not going to give up my Droid phone for an iPhone just for the app, that’s for sure.

I have, however, found a pretty cool photo program (or two) for my Droid phone.

One in particular I really like -

Retro Camera is a program with five different “cameras” you can use to shoot with - (quoted from their website)

The Bärbl - An East German classic, naturally faded with a scratched film and medium vignetting, the perfect all-round choice.
The Little Orange Box - The Soviet Staple with aggressive cross processing and scratched square film. It's crappy plastic lens leaks in light and exhibits strong vignetting. Black and white option for even more emotion.
Xolaroid 2000 - Its inspiration is obvious! We love the candid snapshots this camera produces - you simply can't fail, every shot is a keeper. Blue / Green cross processing effects and timeless contrast. Black and white option for that classic touch.
The Pinhole Camera - A DIY gem and more unpredictable than Schrödinger's cat. Full bleed developing and vignetting through the roof, be sure to give this cardboard chimera a go.
The FudgeCan - The perfect rig for outdoors; developed on square film that wasn't quite stored... or developed right. But therein lies the charm that'll make your pics with this beauty, memorable and instantly nostalgic.

I am finally getting around to playing with it, after having it installed for a couple of months and totally forgetting it’s there.

Here are a few shots I took last week:

I think this one was with the Little Orange Box camera.  And these two are with the Xolaroid …

And this one, I think, with the Bärbl camera.  

I think someone was finished having her picture taken – and I love the note – I didn’t see it at the time but it was a note between her and my mom, written on the menu. Sweet.

Have you found any non-iPhone apps that you love?

Fruits of the Spirit

One of the things we talked about at the retreat I was at this past weekend were the Fruits of the Spirit – Galatians 5:22.

I wanted to create something to keep these foremost in my mind so that I would not forget what I learned.

I created this:

I thought some of you might like a copy – so I put it on Flickr and you can download a copy and print it for yourself. I am putting mine in a 5x7 frame.

Final JYC Post for 2010

I put the finishing touches on my Journal Your Christmas album today. I am pleased that I actually finished it before the end of my holiday break. I know that once I am back at work, and the kids in school, that I won’t have time to scrapbook much, so I’m especially glad to finalize the project. 

I’ll be ordering my bound book in the next few weeks. I can’t wait to see the finished project.  This will be the first all-digital, bound book I’ve done for our family. I’ve done gift albums that I’ve given to others, but this is just for us.

Since I’m doing so much digital scrapbooking these days, I’m thinking I may just do more and more of these type books. They take up a lot less space on the bookshelf and it is so much easier to just order the bound book when you’re done.

I am considering doing the same for my 2010 pages. I have to finish from August-December and that will be my next project, I think. Once those pages are done, I’ll probably go ahead and make it a bound book as well.

Do any of you have suggestions for ordering a bound 12x12 book? This Christmas one is 8x8 and I’ll probably order it through Creative Memories.  But I would love to do some price comparison (and quality comparison) on the larger 12x12 books.

Any suggestions?

Here are the final few pages I don’t think I’ve shared with you:

    

This is the last page of the book. I love it.

a Christmas Manifesto

I’m starting (finally) my 2010 Christmas album.

As last year, I’m following along with Shimelle’s Journal Your Christmas class. Loving the prompts and finding that I really do have new things to write about this year, even though the prompts are pretty much the same as last year.

Although it appears they are mixed up a bit… or maybe I am wrong? Does anyone know if she rearranges the prompts from year to year?

Here’s my first page:

Journaling:

This year, my Christmas manifesto is this:

Don’t over do.

Keep it simple.

Do what feels right.

Slow down.

Enjoy things.

Stress less.

Relax more.

People, not things.

Do the things you want to do.

Let the rest go.

I’m hoping to find a way to focus on what is really important about the season – Christ’s birth and the celebration of our Savior – and not so much on the shopping and to-do lists.

And here is Day 2:

 
The Journaling:

This year has been crazy with weather. An unseasonably warm fall which fell right into an unseasonably cold winter. It was as if we only had a few days of "fall" and then temperatures plummeted. After Thanksgiving, we had a rainy Friday which began the downward spiral of temps. This week, the first of December, has been bitterly cold. Temperatures are in the 20's at night and barely out of the 30's in the daytime. Rob is working outside this year and it makes for very uncomfortable working conditions. With my weight loss, I've been freezing as well, even keeping a space heater by my desk to warm me while I work (in the heated house!)The girls are hoping for snow this winter. I figure if we're going to freeze, we might as well get snow!

And Day 3:

 

Journaling:

I addressed and sent 50 Christmas cards this year. That is about double what I have been doing in past years. I included all the folks from church, UpStreet, and a few new friends we've made in the past year. It was fun to send cards to folks we haven't sent to before, along with the usual cards to family. I didn't get them out the week of Thanksgiving, which is my goal every year, but they were out by the 10th, which was fine for me.

More pages to come.

Mother to Daughter

Above all, remember to treat people the way you would want to be treated.* And remember that your sister will be your best friend for your whole life, no matter what comes. Treat each other with love and respect and kindness. * Don't listen to rumors; and don't fall prey to spreading rumors. * Be true to yourself and always follow your "gut" feelings. They are usually right. * Dishonesty never pays. * Quiet time is a good thing. It is always good to get back in touch with your own thoughts. * Being right is not always the most important thing, but being considerate is almost always important. * Don't let people treat you badly - never shy away from standing up for yourself (or each other) * Attitude really is everything. If you approach life with a good attitude even the most unpleasant tasks are not so bad. * Pray * Even when you think something is impossible, don't be afraid to give it a try. You might just surprise yourself with the things you can accomplish. * Lying never works out well. Tell the truth, even if you have to do it carefully so as not to hurt someone. *  Trust God and love each other *

My Day By the Numbers

I finally got around to doing my first prompt (not the first prompt, just the first one I’ve done) on Shimelle’s True Stories class.  Life has been so busy, I haven’t even had time to read the prompts, much less write the responses.  But I am determined to do them – I love her classes and always find such inspiration – both for my writing and my scrapbooking – when I take them.

Here’s today’s page:

Game Night

On Friday, Big Girl was under the weather. She had a virus and a nasty fever and spent the day at home. Saturday she was a little better but still not feeling great. However, she was feeling good enough to get “cabin fever” from being at home with little to do for two days except watch TV and rest.

So, we broke out the board games on Saturday night and played Scrabble together.

What started out as four separate “teams” turned quickly into two “teams” playing.  What was interesting was how hard it was to make words even when we had fourteen letters to use (instead of the usual seven).  You would think it would’ve been easier. But, when you have six “A’s” and few consonants, I don’t think it matters much.

We had a good time, though.  I was very proud of the girls’ spelling ability and their creativity in coming up with words. SuperMan’s creativity was impressive, too – especially his “creative spelling” on a few words. 

I’m looking forward to more game nights this winter.

More Scrapbooking

Even though Big Girl is sick with a virus and the day was busy on Friday, I still managed to sneak in a few hours of scrapbooking. Here are a few of the pages I worked on.

Surprisingly, I’m almost caught up with my 2010 photos. I have a few more occasions to do and then I can focus on preparations for Shimelle’s Journal Your Christmas class which starts right after the first of December.  I did the class last year and loved how it helped me reflect more on what the holidays mean to me (and less on the commercial aspects of them) and I’m looking forward to doing it again this year and finding out what changes have occurred within me in the last 12 months. What will I focus on this year compared to last?

Anyway, here are pages for you to enjoy…  

Hey! Guess What!?!

I actually scrapbooked this week!

Can you believe it?

I was beginning to wonder if my scrapbooking mojo had left me for good.

But, I’m very happy to report it hasn’t.

I’ve spent some of my free time in the past week pouring over scrapbook blogs and boards trying to get myself inspired again. It has been working.

I felt the itch come on slowly and begin to build. Now it’s like a case of poison ivy!

I just gotta scratch that itch!

Here are a few pages I’ve made:

 

I’m hoping to get to do some more this weekend. My Big Girl is not feeling well, though, so I may be busy being nursemaid instead of super scrapper. 

What? A Scrapbooking Post?

I know, I know… those of you who originally started following my blog to see scrapbooking related posts have probably gotten really disappointed in me lately… the scrapbooking has been rather absent.  As a matter of fact, if you’re still hanging around, I have a special message for you…

Thank you.

I know I have been rather lax in the scrapbooking department. But, I have no good excuses for you – Life just gets in the way sometimes, you know?

But, the good news is that I have two scrapbooking retreats this fall – one was this past weekend and one is in October.  I think I have found my scrapping mojo again – although it took me most of this past weekend to find it!

Here are a few pages I did over the weekend. For those of you who are Creative Memories software users, I’ll post some templates later in the week.

 

You aren't going to believe this

But I actually scrapbooked this past weekend!

I know!

Big shock!

I haven’t done it in months and months.  I had grand plans at the beginning of summer but they were washed away in a sea of other activities.

My girlfriend came over Saturday night and we hid out in the basement and scrapped and caught up on each other’s lives.  It was so great. I really miss that time with my friends and the creative time.

I’m hoping I get to do more of that this fall once we get the school and activity schedules nailed down.

I have been challenging myself to do two things:

• Work only from my stash. No shopping trips allowed.
• Use some of the many inspiration page layouts I have filed away.

Here are some of the pages I worked on: (along with their inspiration pages)

Here is the inspiration page:

  I need to go back and add my journaling to this one. I want to list all the books I’ve read this summer.

And the inspiration page:

 

Again, needs more journaling. The medicine I’m taking is making me a bit loopy, so I decided to wait and write when my head was more clear. 

Inspiration page:

This was my own invention. :-) This two-page spread I tried just fiddling with some of the design principles I’ve learned in the past few classes I’ve taken.     

This one is still a work in progress. Nothing is even glued down yet, but I love how it’s going so far.

Here is the inspiration page:

I can’t believe all these pictures are from LAST YEAR at this same time! The girls have grown so much.  I’ll have new first-day-of-school pictures tomorrow that will quickly go in my pile to scrap.

 

Friday Scrap Inspiration

I subscribe to, oh, about a million blogs.  I don’t read them all every day, but I love to spend a little bit of time each day to read a few blogs.  I have some standards – my “Daily Fix” that I read every day – and then a whole host of others that I read when I have time.  I have them categorized in Google Reader (do you use this? It is awesome if you’re a regular blog reader) – categories like Cooking & Baking, Scrapbooking, Parenting, etc.

Today, I have been perusing the scrapbooking blogs I subscribe to.  I thought I’d share with you some of the layouts I’ve seen that are inspiring me today – giving me ideas and getting those creative juices flowing.

So, grab your cup of tea (or coffee) and sit back and enjoy: (you can click on the images to link back to source blog post)

I just LOVE this spiral with the hearts. Gotta try this.

and this one? LOVE the magazine-style layout. 

Same gal did this one, too. Love it. Can’t wait to see more of hers in the future.

If you’re a digital scrapbooker, you should check out Songbird Avenue. Each month, they post a kit for $8 and the proceeds benefit a charity.  That’s not why I buy their kits, though. I buy them because they are beautiful. Every single month. I love them.  Here’s June’s kit:

I’m also finding colors inspiring today:

The cool teal blue of the water and the hot pink of the float and goggles.  Must figure out a way to scrap these pool pictures and make those colors “pop” even more.

What is inspiring you today?

New Scrap Space

I spent a lot of time last weekend moving and reorganizing my scrapbooking stuff. I moved it from the sitting area in my master bedroom down to the basement. I decided it was time to make our bedroom a real bedroom, and not a scrap room with a bed!

Here are some pictures of the new scrap space in the basement. I have some decorating to do – I want to get some things on the wall to make it a little more inviting/crafty/creative.  Last weekend I was just focused on getting everything downstairs and set up.

This is the space – two parallel tables nestled in the corner. One is my worktable and the other will be for storage and for laying out larger projects.

My worktable (complete with inspiration – a picture of SuperMan, some chocolate, and artwork by my kids)

The view as you come down the stairs.

I decided to keep my stamp pads close by as well as the tools, idea books, pens and other things I use on a regular basis. The cart tucked beside my chair holds odds and ends. I want to reorganize it and put some other things in there like my stamping tools, etc.

The sort/store/Cricut table. SuperMan made the shelves for my tables out of stair tread boards. I love them and it is great to take advantage of vertical space for storage. Behind the CM paper tote I have a Rubbermaid drawer that houses mini albums and some other projects-in-progress. The 3-drawer Rubbermaid has ribbons, brads, eyelets, and other stuff. Behind the CM photo box are my stamping and embossing tools. Paper and stickers are on the top shelf.

I also need to get some storage space. Everything is under my table and it’s not very pretty. I want to get it organized better so I can find things – and so little fingers don’t go wandering through my stuff (the kids’ play area is at the other end of this room)If I have a buddy over to scrap, there is room across from my tables to set up another table for them. I also have a TV and stereo downstairs so I can watch TV or listen to music while I scrap. I am going to keep my eye out for a cheap DVD player to put down there, too so we can watch chick flicks.  

 

Templates for You

I have created a few more templates to be used in StoryBook Creator Plus 3.0.

The pages I created using them are below. They give you a good focal-point picture and still have room for some other photos. I had a lot of pictures and I wanted to fit them all in a few pages. I think this did the trick.

and here are the pages: (click on the image to download the template)

 

Here is a link with instructions on saving your templates and importing them into a StoryBook.

Hope you enjoy!

Technorati Tags: Creative Memories,Creative Memories templates,StoryBook Creator,StoryBook Creator Plus,digital scrapbooking templates

Field Day

When I was a kid, Field Day was something I dreaded. It was sooo hot in South Georgia and the thought of being outside and being forced to participate in sports was the equivalent of being banished to Hell.  I used to try to come up with all sorts of reasons why I couldn’t go to school that day (none of which worked) and why I didn’t need to participate.  I was not athletic, competitive, coordinated, or heat-tolerant.  All of those things added up to making Field Day a miserable experience for me.

My girls, however, have not inherited those traits from me.  They, thank goodness, have a love of physical activity and seem to be relatively heat-proof.  So, Field Day for them this year was a great time. 

Of course, it doesn’t hurt that their school put on a fantastic event.  I have to hand it to those folks. You can tell that months went into planning the day. There were water events, track and field-type events, coordination challenges, relays… all sorts of things.  And there were eighty-bajillion volunteers.  Which, I am sure, is part of why things went so well.  Thank goodness for involved parents!

SuperMan was off of work so we were able to enjoy watching the girls in most of their events.  Here are some highlights:

   

Finally Scrapbooking Again!

The girls had a Girl Scout event on Saturday and SuperMan was busy with yard work.  What’s a girl to do when she has a few hours on her hands and no pressing chores?

Scrapbook!

Exactly!

I had purchased the Jessica Sprague intro to Photoshop class a long time ago and had never sat down to actually take the class. So, Saturday was the day. I had peace and quiet, no interruptions, and some recent pictures to use. I was ready.

Before I share the layouts I made, I have to tell you – if you are considering doing any digi-scrapping and have been intimidated by the sheer power of Photoshop, you are not alone. I have resisted using it for a long time because it just seemed overwhelming to learn.  As a matter of fact, I owned it but never used it.

Which, I decided, was really silly. 

So, that’s why I purchased Jessica’s class. And it is a great class. I would highly recommend it to anyone.  I love the clear and easy descriptions of what to do, how to do it, and the great supplies she includes in her course materials.  So, even if you don’t have any digital supplies yet, you can still complete your first pages as part of the class.

Here are some of the pages I’ve made so far. I’m about halfway through the class.

This was my very first layout:

Then, I got all crazy and used a Cathy Zielske template I had from the Design Your Life class I took this winter. I think it turned out well and it was good practice using the things I’d just learned. 

This was a “challenge” layout made with a quick page kit. I still need to go back and add some journaling. And this was my Lesson 2 layout. I still haven’t figured out how I am going to do 2-page layouts, but I am sure I can do it. I just don’t know how yet! But that is important to me because I do most of my scrapbooking in 2-page layouts. Like this “Fish” page is just begging for a sister page with the rest of the photos and story. 

Ok, more to come. I am on a roll.

Project Life Update

I spent some time last weekend updating my Project Life album. I hadn’t worked on it since my surgery at the end of February even though I have been taking pictures here and there and saving bits and pieces to put in the album.

I have to say, I am still loving this format and the kit. I also loved how I realized that there were quite a few pictures that, once I put them in here, I didn’t feel the need to create an additional layout in the family scrapbook. I had told the story here and captured the memory… why do duplicate work? I love that!  My family book is becoming more of a place to capture more in-depth stories and moments and special events.  Project Life is capturing the everyday.

I am even considering inserting some “regular” scrapbook pages in here and making it THE album for the family for the year. Haven’t decided if/how I will do that, though. Just thinking about it.

Here are some of the pages I did. Still have a little journaling to do, but I was not in a writing mood at the time I did this. I will go back and update those this weekend.

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