Holey Moley. I did not want to like dystopia novels. I first heard the word "dystopia" from scrapbooker Wendy Smedley, from Simple Scrapbooks, Ella Publishing and Big Picture Scrapbooking, say that she was reading dystopia novels along with her teenaged boys and that the novels were about post apocalytic worlds. I remember thinking I was glad my kids weren't old enough to like something so seemingly horrible. I am not a fan of horror movies or stories since they tend to stay with me and I end up dreaming about them and I just prefer funny to creepy.
Then, a few weeks ago, we took the whole family to see the inspirational and happy movie Big Miracle with Drew Barrymore. Apparently there was a re-release of Star Wars which is why we saw all those storm troopers at the movies. Before the big show we sat through the previews. The trailer for The Hunger Games crawled up inside my head and didn't leave. It looked horrible. I had no interest in seeing it. I even commented to Charlie how I wished they wouldn't show such awful things before family movies about whales. But. I couldn't stop thinking about it! I even went to You Tube to watch the trailer a few more times just to figure out what was hooking me in.
That's a page from my Project Life Album, of course I'll have to put the thumbnails of The Hunger Games in for this week!
And then, one day another lawyer at my office had a copy of The Hunger Games or Catching Fire in the lunch room and as soon as I saw it I said "Oh! Its that movie! That horrible movie!" Kelly is also a fan of happy and funny tending on the side of dorky - for example, we are both big fans of Sue Heck from The Middle; but Kelly quickly knew exactly what I was talking about and said "I didn't want to like it either! But is so good!" She convinced me that I needed to read it and brought in The Hunger Games the next day; I think that was this past Tuesday and I read it in one sitting from 4 pm - 10 pm. She then brought in the next two and I finished Catching Fire in about 6 hours too and I'm half way through the last one now, Mockingjay. I haven't made a scrapbook page all week because I've been in full dystopia mode all week.
If you'd like to support this blog (which is normally about scrapbooking) and check out the page turning dystopia novels, click on one of the links below:
Probably to counterbalance all the death and destruction of dystopia and District 12 and The Hunger Games, my daughter and I planted a flower garden and planted a bunch of vegetable seeds yesterday so here are some pictures of our garden:
The dystopia novels aren't all that horrible as I originally thought; they are a bit hopeful and do make you think and somehow I couldn't not read them. I'll be in the line for the movie when it comes out next month.
Last week, I posted that I'd have my CHA Bella Blvd. inspired scrapbook knock-offs up on Sunday {here's a link to that blog post}; we got back from a ski vacation and I've been busy getting back to my daily routine and haven't had a chance to blog until now. So here are three pages inspired by the Winter 2012 CHA layouts from Bella Blvd.:
Scraplift: I have tons of buttons but don't often use them on my scrapbook layouts so it was fun to have a purpose for some of these mismatched buttons.
The Story: Since many of the CHA layouts have only one photo, I picked a photo that was very meaningful even though it is not a perfect photo; it is the first photo taken of our whole family - it was taken in the garage - actually here in my home office / scrapbooking room since we had a little crib set up in here- on the day we brought Allison home from the hospital. Allison is now 8 years old and I didn't do a lot of scrapbooking when she was a baby since I was very busy, so its fun to take out these old photos and scrap them now.
Supplies: I used some DCWV baby themed patterened paper, random buttons fastened to the page with adhesive dots; the red polka dot paper is from Echo Park's basics pack, and the letters were from a dollar bin at Target - they didn't stick particularly well so I machine stitched them to the page.
2. Paper Strips and Buttons Layout.
Scraplift: I loved the design of this page since it uses a big square of patterened paper and lots of patterened strips to give the page a solid base and the diagonal random buttons were a fun addition but don't feel too random, the design of this layouts allows for a lot of stuff on the page, but also allows for photos and jouranling space.
The Story: "The school photo process - what a detail ordeal - not only did they get the orders wrong both times, but we had to do re-takes of both kids - but both kids were picture perfect cuties." The back story is that Mac's hair was so long in the first photo that we got him a hair-cut and had a retake done and Allison's photo pose was weird so that while the photo was cute, the amount of space her head took up in the photo was so small you could barely see her face. So both had to get re-takes and both times the processor got everything wrong about the photo packages - and there were about a zillion photo package options, it was seriously confusing and even though the pictures were done in October, we still don't have Mac's package straightened out so that's still on my to do list!
Supplies: KI Memories patterned paper and Bazzill cardstock, random buttons and epoxy stickers and brads, Sassafrass adhesive border stips.
Scraplift: The original page used a dark blue patterened paper base with a tight design, I didn't have something that worked exactly so I used two different Echo Park papers and stitched them together with the middle strip.
The Story: "CHA 2009: As a scrapbooker, it was a total delight to take an entire week off work and go get totall immersed in the world of my hobby and to learn about the industry and all the players. So total interesting to get an upclose peek into this subculture that I spend so many hours in." In the photo are Tina Cockburn (Simple Scrapbooks & Write.Click.Scrapbook.); me; Angie Lucas (Simple Scrapbooks & Ella Publishing); Diva Danielle (she had a podcast which I'm not sure is still around or not); Lain Ehmann (Simple Scrapbooks & Layout A Day); & Tami Morrison (Funnest Ever Scrapbooker from Simple Scrapbooks & teacher at Big Picture Classes).
Supplies: Echo Park patterened paper, QuicKutz die cut letters, sharpie marker, and random other odds and ends.
That's all for now and now that I'm back to my regularly scheduled blog programming, I'll have the rest of the seven Bella Blvd. inspired scrapbook layouts up one per day for the rest of the week.
Plus I'll have my Project Life Album pages up soon and the travel scrapbook I made during our recent ski trip; and I'll be participating in Ali Edward's Day in the Life tomorrow - which also happens to be my son's 10th birthday - but I'm under strict order that we are not to celebrate (not sure what to do about that command).
Cheers.
This Basket contains Christmas scrapbooking mini books that are in progress - some of which I started in 1998!
Still in my December Daily Frenzy: I made a ustream video about the several Christmas Mini Books and December Daily type minibooks that I have started but not finished - and how I keep track of these in progress albums over the years and how one of my books is a 20 year project that I started in 1998. If you don't finish mini books - do not fret! It is ok to pick up where you left off last year - really - it is ok! I like to scrapbook Christmas during Christmas and most of the time when I put the Christmas decorations away I am also ready to stop scrapbooking Christmas so I put away the pictures and supplies too; I show how my system allows me to go into full effect with the Christmas scrapbooking when I am in the mood to do it - Tis the Season; but when it's over, its over and it is nice to have a system of being able to put unfinished projects away without feeling at all guilty about not finishing because there is always next year.
These are my punches - which are probably about 10 years old - and which I still use almost every time I scrap - the smaller circle is a bit tweaky - but I still recommend these basic and very useful and versatile tools - I used these punches to cut the circle numbers, cut the notches and round the corners of these Christmas Mini Books.
If you don't have circle punches or corner rounders that you love, check these out - I have the Fiskars one in a scallop circle - so the regular circle is on my Christmas list. I'm also linking some Chrismtas Paper Pads that are so useful in making the types of mini-books I love to make - I would love to buy more Christmas paper packs but I seriously have too many already, but if I needed some these are the ones I would get. I also happen to think you can never have enough 8x8 albums so I'm linking a few of those in Christmas styles and the very same CHRISTMAS MEMORIES BOOK that I started in 1998 and it will go through 2018! It is seriously awesome.
I couldn't find the exact 8x8 Chistmas Album that I have but if I were buying now, I might pick one of these (above); and that first red Christmas Memories Book by Lynn Anderson is the one I have, but the others look like they do the same type of thing and the Christmas Journal actually goes for 25 years! That is so cool!
Inspired by Ella Publishing's Stetch Your Sketches Series:
Just under the wire {I think} to get this in for the Ella Publishing Boot Camp prize drawing:
Hello Blue Eyes!
This challenge was to use an ad as inspiration for a layout. I don't think mine turned out nearly as clever as the BC ad, but I still like the overall effect.
This was a challenge by Angie Lucas based on a layout by Elizabeth Dillow. I could make tons of these types of layouts.
Another Ella Publishing boot camp drill exercise: To practice the urban action - and because my home printer is just about out of ink; for the urban action layout challenge I made a layout using a photo similar to the one I used for the urban action layout exercise - and then scanned it in and applied the urban action to it - the lower version is the urban action.
I edited this photo in Picasa and also in PSE using Maggie Holmes's instructions for Urban Actions. My photo taste-tester Allison said that she prefers the Urban Action photo.
I made this stamped title with two colors for the Ella Publishing Boot Camp "Fun With Word Stamps" drill. I recently heard about the concept of a Project Lifetime scrapbook that would be someone's entire life in one book in chronological order; I also like (but rarely do) the concept of 12 on 12 where you take 12 pictures on the 12th of each month; this layout sort of goes along with those theories of doing a monthly wrap up in one layout. I would like to go back and do more of these. I think because of the way my photos are arranged and saved, this would be a good project for a digital photobook. Maybe I'll get to work on that for a Christmas project, maybe. P.S. the colors on this layout look much better in real life - I scanned this layout rather than taking a photo of it - and many times I think the photo is better than the scan for digitalizing layouts.
Some things never get old, like simple grids on scrapbooking layouts, which was another of the drills in Ella Publishing's Boot Camp. I think this type of layout is great to be the title page for a themed album or just a place to collect a bunch of bits of this and that type of memorabilia from a trip.
Angie Lucas's Ella Boot Camp challenge for connective journaling was to use photos and and journaling to tell something deeper about the photos or the person in them.
My son is a natural leader, but he's a quiet leader - which is funny since he has ADHD and can be very loud. When he is a leader he is more of a leader by example than one who demands attention, he is naturally charismatic and attracts people to him without trying, he's also the type of kid who is the one who's making up the game or blazing the trail with lots of followers. I used the journaling to highlight three examples of this type of leadership.
Journaling: " * On this climb, you were the leader even though I had tried this path before. You were fearless and encouraging. * Teachers have always told me that you are a natural leader and once Ms. Diane said "Oh we're so happy that Mac is back" after an absence from pre-school "because the other kids don't know what to do without him" and sure enough thee other kids flocked to you immediately. * Being the first born and the oldest of the local cousins, you're the leader."
P.S. I could make a bazillion layouts out this climb.
Here's the layout I made with the photo I tried to photoshop:
It looks washed out right? I printed out the photoshopped photo at home but my printer was low on ink so it came out a bit wonky so I used the smaller prints that I also printed out because the wonkiness of the color didn't show up as much. BTW my printers are always low on ink because my kids love to print things from the Backyardigans.com and Barbie.com, I sort of have to hoard the print cartridges if I want to use them for photos which I can never remember to do, so most of my pictures I have printed at Walgreens or Shutterfly depending on how quick I need them.
I'm not sure why, but I haven't bonded with Photoshop. I remember way way back in the mid nineties my friend Joe showed me Adobe which I think was the pre-cursor to Photoshop, and I remember loving it back then. Then fast forward to 2007 and I went to Donna Downey's Inspired Event and saw Renee Pearson demonstrate Photoshop Elements and she made it look so easy that I bought it as soon as I got home, I think it was PSE 6. I did not love it. Then I recently heard that they made PSE so much better, and probably around 6 months ago I bought PSE 9, but it goes mainly unused and I typically use Picasa to edit my photos.
I did this PSE tweak of a picture using the Ella Boot Camp tutorial by Maggie Holmes:
Maggie Holmes did make it easy to use, but I had the iphone set up with the video so I could be working on the computer; and I don't think I really tweaked my photo to perfection using PSE 9. I did like that I could make certain areas of my photo lighter or darker or more saturated which I can't do in Picasa. Here's that same photo with the Picasa before and after:
Picasa is free and I think PSE 9 was about $100. I think that a good project for me would be to learn more about PSE, but somehow I am never motivated to do so. I would like to learn the burning around the edges effect in PSE and maybe learn more about actions - I guess I'll put that on my list of things to do, but chances are it will remain on my list until I find something awesome about PSE - can you clue me in - tell me something awesome about PSE so I'll start using it.
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