Trish and I have just completed The Mother LOAD over at Big Picture Classes. This is my stack of paper layouts I did this month. There are also a handful of digital layouts that aren't printed yet.
I really dreaded doing this class, because I've always thought of myself as a slow paper scrapper, and I'm mostly digital, but Trish twisted my arm to join her. Trish and I decided to do mostly paper layouts in order to get some of the photos in our category drawers into albums. I assumed it would be really tough to keep up with this class.
And truth be told, I mostly got caught up on the weekends. But I have learned that I can do a handful of nice layouts in one lazy Saturday morning. Who knew? For me one of the keys is to get organized. First by pulling a stack of photos, enough for a lot of layouts, and putting them into a project folder. Having my embellishments, inks, paints and scraps in drawers by color is also immensely helpful. Liking simple pages also helps. Keeping my focus on the story and then the photos helps keep the layouts simple and therefore fairly quick to make.
In addition to getting lots of layouts done, I've used up lots of bits and pieces of paper and embellishments (hello scraps!) that I've had laying around in my scrap room unused for a long time.
In fact, it's been such a positive experience, I plan on keeping up the tradition of doing 4-5 paper layouts every weekend I can. Maybe I'll finally get my children's childhood photos out of the drawers and into albums. It's about time, since they're all adults!
Thursday, September 29, 2011
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
Another project!
I decided rather on the spur of the moment to attend a workshop in Dallas in early November. Part of the incentive, in addition to the workshop itself, is that I can visit my daughter-in-law and grandbaby who live a short flight away. So Monday I made the decision and bought the tickets. Which then lead to another project.
I've been waiting for a trip so I had an excuse to purchase Ali Edwards' Scrapbook On the Road class. It's a travel album partially prepared ahead of time to take along on your trip, and add journaling and ephemera as you go and after you get home.
I just started working on it tonight. So far, it looks like it's going to be fun to make and fun to use. Ali's projects are always creative and inspiring. I'm using mostly materials I already have on hand, though I am going to have to order a few things I want to include. I've decided to go with a neutral color scheme so that any ephemera I pick up on the trip with pop rather than compete. Since the main impetus for the trip is the music workshop I'll be attending, I'm using some of the music-themed papers I have in my stash, to create pages for journaling and whatever else I want to use them for.
It's been many years since I've been in Texas - I'm really looking forward to good barbecue!
I just started working on it tonight. So far, it looks like it's going to be fun to make and fun to use. Ali's projects are always creative and inspiring. I'm using mostly materials I already have on hand, though I am going to have to order a few things I want to include. I've decided to go with a neutral color scheme so that any ephemera I pick up on the trip with pop rather than compete. Since the main impetus for the trip is the music workshop I'll be attending, I'm using some of the music-themed papers I have in my stash, to create pages for journaling and whatever else I want to use them for.
It's been many years since I've been in Texas - I'm really looking forward to good barbecue!
Sunday, September 25, 2011
TextFX and other classes
Somehow this post got lost in my drafts folder and never got published:
I just wrapped up participating in TextFX at Renee Pearson, and I have to say it was a very good class. Tiffany is a great teacher, and I learned lot watching the videos and doing the projects. My titles will never be the same again!
One of the great things about classes at reneepearson.com is that students have forever access. So if you have a chance to take this class when it's offered again, I highly recommend it.
Next up on my schedule from reneepearson.com:
Check them out
Simply Sunday
This lovely rose passed so quickly from full bloom to this. I've taken a photo of this rose from it's budding stage. They pass all too quickly.
I'm linking up with Rebecca Cooper's Simple Things Sunday just for fun.
There are always some really lovely photographs linked there. Check them out.
And, here's another link, this time to a lovely story from a fellow Simply Music teacher. I love the generosity and kindness shown by many people in this story:
Khamis and Alam
My plan for the day:
I'm linking up with Rebecca Cooper's Simple Things Sunday just for fun.
There are always some really lovely photographs linked there. Check them out.
And, here's another link, this time to a lovely story from a fellow Simply Music teacher. I love the generosity and kindness shown by many people in this story:
Khamis and Alam
My plan for the day:
- teach for a few hours
- work on my LOAD project to catch up
- celebrate how much I've gotten done with LOAD this month
- enjoy our lovely garden in the evening light
Saturday, September 24, 2011
Finding Photo Flow
I had the opportunity to participate in the inaugural class:
The next session opens up for registration next week at Finding Photo Flow. If the site isn't up when you visit, check back later - there's some site construction going on this week.
I encourage you to take the class. Even though I've been working on my digital photo flow for years, really, I found the class very helpful and I learned new things. Kayla has spent so much time and effort researching and preparing the class materials, and I know it will be even better now that the class has had it's first "on the road" experience.
Kayla uses Lightroom. But don't worry if you don't. She includes really good information on a lot of other programs. Warning: you might decide that your current program doesn't do what you need it to. I use iPhoto, and it works well for me, but there are a few things you need to know about how it handles metadata and how to get the information embedded in your files.
If you think you don't need metadata or a good back up plan, visit the Library of Congress and check out their videos about preservation of digital media. I think most people are really unaware of just how fragile digital media storage is.
But back to Finding Photo Flow. Kayla is a great teacher, very quick to answer questions, and is very much present on the forums, so there is lots of interaction and assistance.
Sign up and find your flow!
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
The next session opens up for registration next week at Finding Photo Flow. If the site isn't up when you visit, check back later - there's some site construction going on this week.
I encourage you to take the class. Even though I've been working on my digital photo flow for years, really, I found the class very helpful and I learned new things. Kayla has spent so much time and effort researching and preparing the class materials, and I know it will be even better now that the class has had it's first "on the road" experience.
Kayla uses Lightroom. But don't worry if you don't. She includes really good information on a lot of other programs. Warning: you might decide that your current program doesn't do what you need it to. I use iPhoto, and it works well for me, but there are a few things you need to know about how it handles metadata and how to get the information embedded in your files.
If you think you don't need metadata or a good back up plan, visit the Library of Congress and check out their videos about preservation of digital media. I think most people are really unaware of just how fragile digital media storage is.
But back to Finding Photo Flow. Kayla is a great teacher, very quick to answer questions, and is very much present on the forums, so there is lots of interaction and assistance.
Sign up and find your flow!
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Friday, September 23, 2011
The Tell-Tale Heart / Le Coeur Révélateur
I just wanted to share this lovely photograph by Luna the Moon Girl, one of the people I follow on Flickr. I love everything about it.
"Set regular time to create things for the sheer joy of it"
The title is from this blog post:
http://michaelhyatt.com/why-i-hope-to-die-empty.html
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
http://michaelhyatt.com/why-i-hope-to-die-empty.html
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
Thursday, September 22, 2011
P365 Day 20
Here's today's pic. Take in the early morning sun. I plan on photographing this little flower through it's short life span.
New project today: creating digital tags to print & put on a ring for mini-journalers throughout October. I had fun playing with stamps and papers and blending modes today creating a different stamp for each week of the month. Pics may follow. Who knows!
I plan on having them & a pen at hand when I'm sipping my morning coffee. Hopefully I'll write down what's on my mind that day. I may or may not use them on layouts. Time will tell
Got my meds today to see if my crazy heart arrhythmia will calm down. So far - nada. But it may take awhile for the benefits to show up.
Other news: I've managed to keep up with LOAD, even though every day hasn't been a paper layout using my printed photos (which is the main thrust of my LOAD project). I'm tending to spend part of each weekend "catching up" with the paper layouts, and so far am quite happy with the results. I've got 17 paper layouts done (the remainder have been digital), and plan on producing another 5 or so this weekend again. Part of my goal here: clearing out some of the stuff stored in this house!
Granted, the photos are just taken out of drawers and put into albums, but no one but me would see them in the drawers, whereas someone just might look in an album. If not now, in the future.
One more thing: this week Trish and I found a treasure trove in the Digital Archives division of the Library of Congress. Tons of good information there about digital storage and back-up and just how short-lived digital storage really is. Check it out: http://digitalpreservation.gov/
New project today: creating digital tags to print & put on a ring for mini-journalers throughout October. I had fun playing with stamps and papers and blending modes today creating a different stamp for each week of the month. Pics may follow. Who knows!
I plan on having them & a pen at hand when I'm sipping my morning coffee. Hopefully I'll write down what's on my mind that day. I may or may not use them on layouts. Time will tell
Got my meds today to see if my crazy heart arrhythmia will calm down. So far - nada. But it may take awhile for the benefits to show up.
Other news: I've managed to keep up with LOAD, even though every day hasn't been a paper layout using my printed photos (which is the main thrust of my LOAD project). I'm tending to spend part of each weekend "catching up" with the paper layouts, and so far am quite happy with the results. I've got 17 paper layouts done (the remainder have been digital), and plan on producing another 5 or so this weekend again. Part of my goal here: clearing out some of the stuff stored in this house!
Granted, the photos are just taken out of drawers and put into albums, but no one but me would see them in the drawers, whereas someone just might look in an album. If not now, in the future.
One more thing: this week Trish and I found a treasure trove in the Digital Archives division of the Library of Congress. Tons of good information there about digital storage and back-up and just how short-lived digital storage really is. Check it out: http://digitalpreservation.gov/
Monday, September 19, 2011
P365 Day 16
Inspired by a blog post I can no longer find about photographing your clutter. This is a corner of my kitchen table. Taken on my iPhone and edited with Camera+
Sunday, September 18, 2011
LOAD update
Here's my P365 photo of the day. This is my handsome grandson.
But he's not the subject of the post. I'm celebrating the fact that I have managed to keep up with LOAD, or at least to always get caught up!
Total layouts since the start of September: 20. I've done 17 paper layouts and the rest are digital. This is a record number of paper layouts for me. I have never ever worked this fast! I'm glad I took LOAD to push my view of what's possible.
I do what paper layouts I can during the week, but if I get busy and don't get them done, I know a bit of concentrated time on the weekend will make it possible for me to catch up. This past week, I "owed" four layouts by the weekend. But it was a breeze to get them finished Saturday.
There were a few layouts along that way that I didn't think I liked that much, but when I look back over my stack, I'm actually pretty happy with them all. Since my paper stash wasn't huge to begin with, I'm sometimes having a bit of trouble finding paper that fits, but my color drawers are a big help in finding what I do have quickly, and my Sizzix is getting more work than it ever has creating titles for pages.
I'm focusing right now on getting old photos of my youngest son scrapped. I've got most of those stories done and will soon be moving on to photos of another child. Since I came to scrapbooking late in my parenting years, and I did nothing with our photos before then, I've got quite a bit of material to work with.
Once LOAD is done, Trish and I are going to continue working our way through our category drawers to get as many of those stories told as we can. We're motivated by the fact that she has to move next spring, so reducing what has to get packed and re-established in her new home is a priority. I'm playing along because otherwise I don't have a lot of motivation to scrap prints these days, and there are a lot of stories waiting in those drawers.
But he's not the subject of the post. I'm celebrating the fact that I have managed to keep up with LOAD, or at least to always get caught up!
Total layouts since the start of September: 20. I've done 17 paper layouts and the rest are digital. This is a record number of paper layouts for me. I have never ever worked this fast! I'm glad I took LOAD to push my view of what's possible.
I do what paper layouts I can during the week, but if I get busy and don't get them done, I know a bit of concentrated time on the weekend will make it possible for me to catch up. This past week, I "owed" four layouts by the weekend. But it was a breeze to get them finished Saturday.
There were a few layouts along that way that I didn't think I liked that much, but when I look back over my stack, I'm actually pretty happy with them all. Since my paper stash wasn't huge to begin with, I'm sometimes having a bit of trouble finding paper that fits, but my color drawers are a big help in finding what I do have quickly, and my Sizzix is getting more work than it ever has creating titles for pages.
I'm focusing right now on getting old photos of my youngest son scrapped. I've got most of those stories done and will soon be moving on to photos of another child. Since I came to scrapbooking late in my parenting years, and I did nothing with our photos before then, I've got quite a bit of material to work with.
Once LOAD is done, Trish and I are going to continue working our way through our category drawers to get as many of those stories told as we can. We're motivated by the fact that she has to move next spring, so reducing what has to get packed and re-established in her new home is a priority. I'm playing along because otherwise I don't have a lot of motivation to scrap prints these days, and there are a lot of stories waiting in those drawers.
Simple Pleasures
I didn't get this photo posted the day I took it. As with all my P365 photos, it's taken with my iPhone and played with in Camera+. Today I'm jumping in with the fun on Rebecca Cooper's website:
Rainbows always make me smile. This one popped up one lovely evening when we were out on the deck. We see double rainbows often, but I'm always fascinated by them.
This one was too close to us to get in much of the rainbow, but it ended up being a complete, huge arc in the sky.
Truly one of life's simple pleasures. May your Sunday be blessed.
Saturday, September 17, 2011
This Week
First of all, this photo is of a few gifts from my one of my very sweet granddaughters. She loves to draw and color and paint, and was so thrilled to discover a hidden art box in my pantry the other day.
This is a bright spot in the week, which has been full of other things that are potentially very stressful.
First of all, our autistic granddaughter's teach told my daughter that it looks like E is having small seizures. The doctors had warned of the possibility years ago, and she's already been checked for them once when she was around two years old. They got her right into the doctor and he said it sounds like it could be absence seizures. She's scheduled for an EEG (I think that's it) to check it out.
And, this little girl's daddy had to go in for tests for something else this week and now we're waiting for biopsy results. Cancer or no, he isn't well, and he's the sole breadwinner since my daughter homeschools the old two children. Life could be changing in many ways for them.
My older son had to fly back to Afghanistan on Friday, his R&R over. The next 9 months will be very long for him and his girls.
Plus, I'm trying to figure out a few health issues of my own. We've got a direction we're looking in, but time will tell if we're right or not.
Many things to potentially be stressed about. Sometimes it seems like there's never an end to issues. One gets settled and another crops up. But I think that's just life. And many people have many more challenges than we do.
Here's a little video that brings that home:
http://youtu.be/oJrZzgrH2sA
This young man has got to be one of the most determined people I've ever heard of to recover and apparently thrive. And it makes most every day trials look very small in comparison.
It's not that the week has been all bad either. I've gotten to do a lot of scrapping with Trish, which is always a good thing. The weather has been gorgeous, in spite of the heat. We've eaten good food all week long, I'm having a party for my students this evening, just a relaxed evening of potluck dinner and piano playing.
So this week is a real mix. I'm grateful for all the good things that have come our way this week and prayerful for the others.
Friday, September 9, 2011
P365 Day 8
Here's today's pic. I missed a few days, but that's life.
I am currently cutting back on said cup of Joe to see if that effects my arrhythmias. So far, no. But I'll give it a little time to see if the effect of being caffeine free is greater after a few days. I'm thinking (and hoping) that they aren't a result of caffeine, since I don't normally imbibe too much of it, and I miss my morning cup! On the other hand, I'd rather give it up than have to take medication from here on.
On an entirely different note, here's a thought provoking article on the current job situation and what it's all about:
http://edition.cnn.com/2011/OPINION/09/07/rushkoff.jobs.obsolete/index.html
Wednesday, September 7, 2011
P365 Day 5
Here's today's photo - taken in dim light since it was late on a cloudy day. I almost forgot to take a photo today! This gets to be more of a problem as I go along.
In other news, I need to make 2 layouts for LOAD tomorrow. I'm finding the process easy since I've got a story list I'm working through, and my photos are organized, thanks to Library of Memories/Finding Photo Freedom. I'm making simple layouts, with a focus on telling the stories I want to tell, and utilizing clean, basic designs. I find I'm using my Sizzix a lot of title work. I'm missing the flexibility of digital titles! But it's OK - I'm getting lots of old pictures scrapped and stories told, and that's why I'm doing LOAD in the first place.
I'm managing to keep up with both FindingPhotoFlow, currently underway at Digiscrap 101 and TextFX at Renee Pearson's online classroom reasonably well. I'm enjoying both classes and learning new things/refining my processes.
Trish and I have also started a project of going through Reneé Pearson's Digital Designs 2 lessons (from the book) whenever we can. So far, it's loads of fun.
So, I'm keeping very busy doing things I love to do.
Thanks for checking in.
Patti
Saturday, September 3, 2011
P365 day 2
It's such a lovely morning, and I love the sunlight on the papaya. Taken with Camera+ on my iPhone 3GS
Friday, September 2, 2011
P365 Day 1
Katie the Scrapbook Lady has inspired me to take up Project 365 again.
I tried this once before and fizzled out. This time, I'm going to make it simpler by focusing on iPhone photos, in a square crop. I have no idea if I'll do anything with these photos other than post some of them here & on Twitter.
Katrina Kennedy posts a monthly photo idea list at Capture Your 365 that I hope will help keep me inspired and playing with new photo ideas.
- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad
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