Kiss and Tell Scrapbooking

Our 1st Art Journaling Class and a Full Circle Moment.

Did I learn anything new?  Nope.

Am I glad I went? Oh, Yes!

I took my 8 year old to an art journal class at our local scrapbook store, Whim So Doodle, yesterday. 

When I was her age, my Grandpa Allen used to drive me to Saturday art classes, she is so ready for that sort of thing.

I had a full circle moment with modern scrapbooking.  Back in around the year 2000 - it might have even been earlier in 1998 or 1999, I'm not sure but maybe since I got married in 99 - I went into a small local scrapbook store here in St. Pete near the mall.  The store no longer exists.  I remember lots of patterned papers, Mrs. Grossman's stickers, frames and paper embellishments that were sold one by one etc. There were some sample scrapbooks in the back of the store.  I mentioned to the clerk that I have been doing this sort of thing with magazines since I was a kid.  She gasped and quickly told me how completely wrong it was to use magazines because they weren't acid free - and now I can say blah-blah-blah - we've all heard that bit before; but back then I felt like maybe this scrapbooking thing wasn't for me.  I do remember going home to check up on my albums from high school.  They were in magnetic albums and full of magazine clippings and they looked totally fine, seriously.  Maybe a few of them had yellow around the edges of the album pages, but the magazine clippings were vibrant and my pictures looked fine too.  A few years after that I tore apart my magentic ablums to "save" them.  I sort of wish I didn't do that now.  I also wish that lady's comment hadn't felt like such a personal attack, but somehow, at that time, it did. 

So fast forward to yesterday and my daughter and I packed up our 90 weight watercolor paper pads, that I made smash book style at home; and our tackle boxes of watercolors, pastels, glue sticks, patterened papers, and OLD MAGAZINES!!!!  I was amused that our first assignment in class at the scrapbook store was to cut up old magazines and make a collage in our art journals.  Um, right. 

With the exception that I was using watercolor paper instead of magnetic albums, it could have been 1986.  It was fun to revisit an old friend - cutting up magazines - I'm pretty sure 99.9% of girls in the 80s did this at one point or another, whether it was to make something to decorate your locker with or it was to make a cool birthday card for a friend or even - gasp - to make an art journal (except we didn't call it that back then) - if you had a subscription to Seventeen Magazine - I'm betting you made something along these lines.

It was fun and there were familar faces in the class - sort of a loose sisterhood of scrapbookers.  I should really get out more so that I could remember everyone's names better, I am so horribly bad at that.  But I "know" these women, I should get out and hang out with them more.

That sort of energy was exciting.  My daugther picked up on it.  While taking a trip to the ladies room she said "I LOVE THIS!!" and she went on and on in a very fast excited voice, a more grown up voice, one that means she's seriously loving this - sort of like the vibe she gets when she watches Victorious or Jessee or those pre-teen types of shows; A sort of "this is new and I love it" feeling. 

"Can we come back tomorrow?"  she asked, reverting to her knees together bouncing up and down with her hands in prayer position stance.  "Oh honey, they don't do this tomorrow but I will sign us up for next month."  I said.  "Next MONTH??!!"  Totally unacceptable she let me know.  I offered "we could do this at home, we have all the supplies."  "BUT ITS NOT THE SAME AT HOME!"  she said.  She is right, there's something about being around other people doing the same thing.  I think I will sign us up for some art classes at the art center and we'll be back down to the scrapbooking store next month for more art journaling.

If you'd like to support this blog and stock up on some art journaling supplies, please click through to one of the affiliate links:

$76 Scrapbook Yard Sale Haul Video

Whoo Hoo !  It was the Scrapbooking Yard Sale at Whim So Doodle Today and I made a HAUL VIDEO!  Here it is:

 

$20 for an art class next Saturday for me and my daughter to take together!

$28 for 5 paper packs (6x6):Heidi Swapp Sugar Chic; Heidi Swapp No Limits; Crate Paper Story Teller; Studio Calico Take Note Collection; & Amy Tangerine Sketchbook.

$26 for 4 organizing bins; 4 mini books; 4 packs of embellishments; 4 packs of Theresa Collins journaling cards;  one pack of metal clock faces; one acrylic stamping block; one Creative Memories paper trimmer; and one piece of 12x12 Studio Calico patterned paper;  PLUS an assortment of Barbie garden pots, presents, shutters and hats for my girl. 

And lots of fun conversations with scrapbookers and art journalers.

What a lovely Saturday Morning.

*

Now we are off for another adventure - more on that soon.

 

 

Scrapbook Yardsales & Jet Packs & 12 on 12 Scrapbook Plans Delayed

Supplies:  Patterned Paper .10 cents x 2; Stickers .25 cents; thickers $.10 cents; photos: .09 cents x 3.  I made this page entirely from things I picked up at the scrapbooking yard sale  for a grand total of  $.82 Cents; ok maybe add a few more cents for the adhesive - still, I'm barely up to $.90 cents total.  Wicked Bargain Right? 

Not only do I now know that Santa's Reindeer are fueled by jet packs, but that time flies faster than a jet.  I had intentions of blogging and even making a scrapbook layout for 1-12-12 but I got busy with lots of other stuff including:

1. Going to the ER thinking that I had a bursting appendendix only to learn that it was a gigantic gas bubble; I don't normally have that sort of problem and it was exceptionally painful.  Now I know and feel a bit like I'm taking after my Grandma Grace in the hypochondriac department.  I am thankful that everything is ok.

2. The normal daily routine of life including working, taking kids to school, laundry, dishes, dinners, homework, work work, meetings, phone calls, mountains of paperwork; it is nice to get back to the routine but I'm wondering how I'm going to fit everything in.  I lots of times think I would like to be able to freeze time to get stuff done and/or clone myself - Samantha Stevens Style ala Bewitched.

3. Ok this one is fun in a scrapbooking kind of way:  I went to the Whim-So-Doodle scrapbook yardsale on Saturday Morning and got so much stuff including the red graph reindeer paper on this layout.

 

 

Looking Forward to 2012 - My Year of HOPE

I am looking forward to 2012 and my year of HOPE.   Hope is my "one little word" for 2012.  The Quote inside the O is "Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it.  Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.  BEGIN IT NOW." - Goethe.  I'm a big fan of beginnings so even though this quote does not include my word, I included this quote in my word because it describes how I am feeling.  I like this quote too: "To change one's life: START immediately.  Do it flamboyantly." - William James.  I think I'm going to print out that photo large for my December Daily Album - I still need to finish that up and wrap up Christmas.  I am also a fan of taking down the Christmas decorations relatively soon after the big day.  Maybe tomorrow I'll do that, I'd like to have it done before New Year's Eve.

I got a chance to escape family time for a few hours this afternoon and went out for sushi with extra wasabi and hot tea and then to a home goods store and then to the craft store.  Total Bliss.

I spent about $12 at the sushi bar and another $12 at the craft store.  I bought a bunch of star Christmas ornaments with my word "HOPE" on each one, I put one on my key chain and plan to use the others in OLW type projects. 

I also took a look around the craft store for what else was on sale, what was new, and what had the word "hope" on it.  I quickly decided that my word "HOPE" was not a cursive word and was not pink or purple; my HOPE is yellow green or aquamarine blue and it is in bold letters - probably capitals but not necessarily.   My HOPE is bold and shining and bright and strong.

I got out the paint and made use of some of the Christmas cards we received this year:

I made a little over a dozen of these HOPE cards and I'm going to tuck them away in my Twelve Class Bin to use in my Big Picture Classes in 2012.  Click Here to See My "Twelve Class" Bin.

I'm all signed up for Ali Edwards' class at Big Picture Scrapbooking and I also signed up for Stacy Julian's Twelve Class; Cathy Zielske's More More Eat Well and for Katie Nelson's Round-Up.  So excited and hopeful (wink) about all of these.  I am planning to take some art classes at the local art center too, I stamped HOPE right on the course catalog.

Please leave a comment and let me know if you are signed up for any classes at BPC or anywhere else, what do you want to learn in 2012? 

 

How to Take Really Awful Christmas Boat Parade Photos

Taking reallly awful Christmas Boat Parade Photos has become somewhat of an annual tradition for the Christmas season here in Florida, here are the 2011 awful Christmas boat parade photos:

For whatever reason, something in me says - keep taking them - maybe you'll get lucky. 

 

 

December Daily: 12/3/11

Busy Day - trying to maintain momentum with my December Daily and Project Life.

 

December Daily: 12/2/11 & Improvisational Comedy as applied to Scrapbooking & Whacking Fiskars Border Punches

December Daily - Day 2:

and more and more pages in December Daily and we're only on December 2nd:

I made some ustream videos while working on Project Life and December Daily - these videos are not how to videos and they are not, probably, particularly interesting.  However, if you enjoy background noise chatter about scrapbooking while you are scrapbooking, then you just might dig them.

Project Life & Time to Get Back on the Weight Loss Wagon:

 

December Daily - Day 2 - Part I:

 

December Daily - Day 2 - Part II - and how the concepts of improvisational comedy can help you find your flow in scrapbooking and any creative process:

 

P.S. My son listened to that last video and got a huge kick out of me whacking the Fiskars Border Punches - he giggled for 15 minutes - which sort of proves my point about being fully committed is what makes you funny  and the mistakes are what make you funny in improvisational comedy or awesome in scrapbooking - its the imperfections that are the awesome part.

Here are some links to some of the supplies and resources I used in these videos:

 

Cub Scout Camping Trip & Two Page Scrapbook Layout with 18 Photos Using Circle Die Cutters

We went primitive tent camping with the Cub Scouts the weekend after Thanksgiving  and I took a zillion photos.  I did this simple two page layout and was able to fit 18 photos on the spread by cutting the photos into circles.

Lately one of my favorite scrapbooking tools is my set of die cut circles.  I have been using my circle dies so much that I have been keeping them in a small lotus bowl on my scrapbooking desk along with my QuicKutz Revolution - I am not sure they are still selling that model, so I have linked the QuicKutz Epic 6 below.  I used the circle dies to cut the photos for the Cub Scout Camping Trip 2 page scrapbook layout.  I recommend QuicKutz Cookie Cutter Dies or Spellbinders Nestabilities since both include several sizes.

 

Scrapworthy Lives August Blog Hop: Buy Some Happiness: Saturday Night Date Night!

Welcome Scrapbookers and Blog Hoppers!

You should have arrived here on the August Happiness Blog Hop sponsored by Stephanie Medley-Rath's Scrapworthy Lives: Because your Life Is Worth Scrapbooking Blog  {click here for the link to Scrapworthy Lives}.  More specifically, the stop before mine on the hop was { Tammy's Blog: Your Memory Connection }.

August's Theme is "Buy Some Happiness" inspired by Gretchen Rubin's book: "The Happiness Project: Or, Why I Spent A Year Trying to Sing in the Morning, Clean My Closets, Fight Right, Read Aristotle, and Generally Have More Fun."  On the subject of money buying happiness, Gretchen Rubin explains:  "money, spent wisely, can support happiness goals of strengthening relationships, promoting health, having fun, and all the rest." 

Can Money Buy You Love? - the Beatles didn't think so - and neither do I, but can money infuse a little happiness into your relationship?  I think so.  This layout was inspired by a recent "Modest Splurge" when my husband and I re-instituted our long standing tradition of Saturday Night Date Night.  We didn't go crazy, but we did go on a bit of a geek spree at Best Buy and then downtown to the restaurant of our choice and indulged in good food and quality time together - without the kids.

 

The Page:  The page I made for this blog hop seems simple enough, I didn't use any embellishments or even any letter stickers - just a piece of colored cardstock and a few strips of patterened paper.  To the casual observer, this is a frugal page.  But to me, it represents a splurge.  I try to keep my spending on scrapbooking supplies to a bare minimum - I try to limit my purchases to adhesives and page protectors because I have enough scrapbooking supplies to last a lifetime.  Most of the time, I am happy using older supplies and papers in my scrapbooking, but occasionally, I find myself in a rut and when that happens I allow myself to indulge in a "Modest Splurge" and that Basic Grey Lauderdale Paper represents just such a splurge that I recently made on a trip to my local scrapbooking shop Whim-So-Doodle in Downtown St. Pete.  I bought $30 of patterened papers that I didn't need but I really wanted - it was all impulse shopping - buying whatever I thought was attractive, but I kept a dollar limit for myself and paid in cash - not with a credit card.  I didn't know what I'd use this paper for when I bought it but it seemed perfect for the mood I wanted to create with this page.

Here's our story:  Charlie and I met in 1995 and quickly fell in love, we were both recent law school graduates with lots of potential and lots of law school loan debt.  We had a long courtship and it was four years before we got married, but during our dating years, we took a giant leap of faith by starting a law practice together in 1997.   In 1999, as newlyweds, we had lots of time and love - but not much money - just a lot of law school loan debt, a new business, and a home mortgage.  We worked hard to get to a financially OK place.  In 2002, we started a family and when the children were small, we indulged in a live-in nanny, babysitters, and a housekeeper.   We kept up our Saturday Date Night Tradition even when the kids were small and we were seriously busy. 

But somewhere around 2008 or 2009, when the bad economy hit, we decided to tighten up the bootstraps and stopped having a housekeeper and started cleaning our house ourselves again; and since the children were getting a little older, we no longer needed all the babysitting.  So our new-found frugality led to the End of our Saturday Date Night Tradition.  Looking back, I think our marriage suffered a little bit because we stopped taking this time out together, we lost a connection that we once had and our connection then centered only around the house, the kids and work - there was little to no time spent on just us. 

Until last week - we brought back Saturday Date Night and it was worth every penny!

 Journaling: "Saturday Night - July 23, 2011: The first night in our house alone since Mac was born in 2002 and we had a long over-due date night at Moon Under Water in Downtown St. Pete - Of course it rained!  With both kids at a friend's house overnight - we got a little preview of the next stage in life."

 

Ok, Scrapbookers and Happiness Seekers: Now go check out the last stop on the Blog Hop!  { Click Here for Melissa's Blog }

:) Katie.

 

Scrapbook Improv: Confessions of a Seasoned Scrapbooker Turned Improv Student

Scrapbooking Confession #1:  I go into my scrapbooking room and surf the internet for scrapbooking inspiration instead of actually scrapbooking.

Scrapbooking Confession #2:  I still scraplift after over 10 years of scrapbooking.

Scrapbooking Confession #3:  My inner critic sometimes prevents me from putting my authentic self down in my journaling on scrapbook pages.

Do these problems prevent me from scrapbooking? No. Actually I am an avid scrapbooker and may be over-stating these problems, but they still exist for me.  “Hello, My name is Katie and I’m a scrap-a-holic.”

I recently took an improv class and the principles I learned have helped me improve (get it – improv / improve) my scrapbooking skills and I’m having more fun than ever before scrapbooking.  Did the improv class make me funnier?  Not according to my kids.  But the lessons I learned in improv class have opened my creative brain like never before and I’m so exciting about sharing the concepts and how I am applying to them to scrapbooking and a whole lot more!

This blog post series is dedicated to the lessons I’ve learned in improv class as they can be applied to scrapbooking.

This is lesson Number 1! “Yes, And… !”

One of the first exercises we did in improv class was to play “Yes, And…” but we didn’t start with this game, we started in pairs with the game of “No, But…” Our instructor told us to suggest to our partner that we go to lunch at a particular restaurant and then the partner would say “no, but” and explain why they didn’t want to go to that one but wanted to go to a different restaurant, then we would go back and forth with the “No, buts.” The “No, but” conversation was frustrating and we didn’t end up deciding on going anywhere. This exercise reminded me of when I am scrapbooking and I pick some photos but then decide “no, but” I think I maybe have some better photos somewhere, which leads to a long hunt for the right photos or paper or embellishment or journaling spot or story to tell or you name it. If you are a scrapbooker, you probably have done this frustrating “No, but” exercise with yourself more than once. I would like to say goodbye to “No, but” scrapbooking forever.

I would like to be a “Yes, And…” Scrapbooker. In improv class, after the “No, But” exercise, we did the “Yes, And…” exercise we were told to start the same way by suggesting that we go to a restaurant and then our partner would respond by saying “Yes, And…” then the partner would suggest something else to do. When we played this game everyone got more creative and had more fun, instead of just going to lunch the teams ended up going scuba diving, on treasure hunts and to outer space, so much more fun and interesting than the first exercise.

The “Yes, And…” game is one of the basic principles of improv comedy. The moral of the this principle is to accept what others have to offer, to try something new, to be open to new possibilities; and it is also about taking something and running with it – putting an end to all that deliberation of if you should do this or that – it’s a quick decision so the fun can begin!

So how can you apply the “Yes, And” principle from improv to scrapbooking?  Here are 5 fun ways:

1. Say “Yes, And” to someone’s imagination or plan in real life and then scrapbook about the experience. I let my daughter plan an adventure for the two of us and she took us on a “hike” all the way from our house to a busy part of town – I never imagined she would want to walk to far from home and luckily my husband came to rescue us once we got to her intended destination, but it was a little peek at her independent view of the world and her desire to explore it.

 

2. Say “Yes, And” when someone offers you free tickets or a chance to do something you don’t normally do and scrapbook the experience.  My husband is one of those rare men who doesn’t watch sports of any kind and while I’m quite happy about this fact, I do enjoy actually going to live games, he does not.  So when a business friend gave us free tickets to the Tampa Bay Rays Game, he normally says “No, But” we don’t go to games, but I overheard the exchange and quickly said “Yes, And” I’ll take our son and that’s just what I did. 

 

3.  Take what others have to offer:  Kid’s Artwork.  My kids bring home a lot of artwork and I keep lots of it, but the artwork doesn’t always end up in my scrapbooks, more often it ends up in a specially dedicated book to that school year.  I do think kids’ artwork can make an awesome embellishment or background to a page because it gives a personal touch and can further the story you are trying to tell.  This page is about how I usually think my son favors me over his Dad and how happy his Dad was when he brought home a Valentine that highlighted Dad instead of me!  This page makes both of us smile, since we now each think we are his favorite!

 

And, just to be fair, I made another scrapbook page that featured our son’s portrait of me:

 

4.  Take what others have to offer:  Photos.   My husband’s nephew has a distinct sense of humor, one year for Christmas he sent 8×10 glossy photos of himself – but he had done things like shaved his head into a comb-over.   I knew this photo needed to go into a scrapbook (and not on display in the house) and I though the Single White Male Ad would be a funny twist – it was my “Yes, And” to his weird self portrait.  Oh, And Yes, Ladies, he is still single just in case you are wondering.

 

5. Say Yes, And!  to the Embellishments and Letters that you have on hand:  The letters in this layout don’t match, chances are that if you are a paper scrapbooker you have left over letters from several different alphabets, this trick is an oldie but a goodie – use different letters to make a title – ransom style. 

 

I made all of the above pages before taking the improv classes, actually several are a few  years old, but in retrospect I can see that “Yes, And…” attitude on these pages.

Now for a Fun Scrapbook Improv Challenge:    Create a page incorporating one of the five tips from this post and/or  answering a question with “Yes, And” so that those words are in your title.  I’ll make a new scrapbook page too and post it here and in Scrapbook Improv Flickr Gallery ( http://www.flickr.com/groups/1715443@N20/ ), come PLAY ALONG!   I would love to see what you create with this “Yes, And” improv concept!

P.S. I was thinking about starting a whole new blog on the concept of Improv Scrapbooking - let me know what you think.  Here's the link:  http://scrapbookimprov.wordpress.com/2011/07/22/confessions-of-a-seasoned-scrapbooker-turned-improv-student/

Sent from my iPhone

:) Katie.

May 4 Scrapbook Inspiration {Sketchy Thursdays} : Flat Stanley

 
This layout went together fairly quickly- maybe about 20 minutes.  I turned the Sketchy Thursdays 12x12 sketch into a landscape 8.5 x 11 layout and used a collage of photos I made in Picasa.  I used some supplies that had  postage and travel themes from Making Memories (Panorama) and Me & My Big Ideas (Airmail) which seemed pretty appropriate for Flat Stanley who traveled from Utah to China to Canada to us here in Florida. 

May 3 Scrapbooking Inspiration {2 Page Layout} : 25 Dollar Boat & Flat Stanley Update

Most of the scrapbook pages I create are single page layouts, so if I'm in a rut, I like to create a 2 page layout and use a lot of photos.  I find that I'm more comfortable using "white space" on a 2 page layout since there is plenty of room for journaling and lots of photos - in this case I was able to get 8 photos on the layout.

 
Here's the Story:  I bought a 25% inflatable boat for the kids during a trip to Treasure Island to watch the sunset and hit the tourist shops.  I tested it out in the pool and Dandy Dog jumped in and punctured the outer part of the boat, we tried to fix it but just couldn't find the hole so we cut the outer part off and use the middle as a raft (4 pictures on the right).

 
Mac and I recently brought "Flat Stanley" to Treasure Island.  Here are the photos from our trip and photos of Flat Stanley's book that we are sending back to Mrs. Horning's First Grade Class in Highland, Utah:

 
 

Pass-A-Grille Beach Baby & Scrapbooking by Numbers: 7 Photos

Ok one more layout about Pass-A-Grille Beach and then I'm probably done for a while, it will be interesting to let the kids age a bit and then revisit this favorite beach place in my scrapbooking, it will be cool to see how the kids have grown up against the backdrop of the same place.  

 
  And of course I'll be uploading this one to the Flickr Group Scrapbooking by Numbers: 7 Photos Group, here's a peek of what you'll find there:

 

More Pass-A-Grille Scrapbooking & Scrapbooking by Numbers: 8 Photos

 
I have been pulling pictures from different years but all from the same place:  Pass-a-Grille Beach, this layout features 8 photos of my son at different ages at this awesome place.  I did little bits of journaling around the layout and also included a printed out history of this beloved beach.  This layout is going in our "Places We Love" album and in a few more years, I'll make another page like this so I will be able to see my son growing up on this beach.  We have many memories of this place and I also foresee doing some journaling heavy 8.5x11 pages which will supplement these photo heavy pages. 

Here are some more details:

 

Would you like to see more layouts with 8 photos on a page?  Check out the Scrapbooking by Numbers: 8 Photos  Flickr Group - Here's a peek at the 8 photos on a page scrapbook layouts that what you'll find there:

 

Go Fly A Kite - Scrapbooking by Numbers: 6 Photos & a Scrapbooking Challenge!

March in Florida is blissful. Looking back through my pictures from other years during March I notice how often we fly kites and go to the beach in March.  I might have included some of those old photos if my Library of Memories storage binders were in better shape, but I decided to just scrapbook what I had available and ready right now and used these photos I took a couple weekends ago on this layout.

 

Products:  Dear Lizzy by American Crafts & October Afternoon.

Go join the Scrapbooking by Numbers Flickr Group for more inspiration and ideas for getting 6 photos on a scrapbook layout.  Here's the link:  Click Here for the Scrapbooking by Numbers Flickr Group: 6 Photos.  Here's a little preview of what you will see at Flickr:

 

Here's the link to the Scrapbooking by Numbers - 6 photos Slide Show: http://www.flickr.com/groups/1356158@N21/pool/show/.

Scrapbooking Challenge:  Scrapbook 6 photos on one layout feature photos showing what you love to do in the Spring.  Upload your layout to the Flickr Group and leave a link in the comments here on my blog.