Camono Craft Hideaway

Last weekend I had the luxurious and wonderful chance to go away and scrapbook all weekend.  I left work early on Friday, which was lovely and made for an extra long weekend.  I picked up Deborah and we headed for the Camano Craft Hideaway. 

We spent the weekend with six other folks who I did not know...but I do now!  We already signed up for next year.  Really, do I have to wait a year???  Here we are at the end of the weekend.

The happy (and color coordinated) scrappers.

While I was there, I worked on our photos from Turkey.  At first I was totally overwhelmed by the sheer number of photos.  I was trying to squeeze them into 10 layouts.  Why, you ask? I don't know!  It was just some rule that I made up in my mind.  When I let go of my silly rule, it all went much better.  Here are the layouts that I completed (those of you who know the itinerary will see that some pages are missing.  Yes.  I still have some work to do.).

Istanbul

Aya Sofia and Blue Mosque

Topkapi Palace

Bosphorus Cruise

Izmir with the Georgers

Road Trips with R & G

Ah...Sirince

Karabarun

Deborah and I also worked on creating an "Inspiration Journal" for our next Big Picture Class: Creative Retreat.  I'm super excite because I am taking it with Deborah and Denise.  This is our virtual scrapbook retreat.  I just have to make some time for it.

Inspiration Journals

Finally, I spent this weekend unpacking, reorganizing and moving all of my layouts into their correct album.  I finished a title page and an end page and this layout for my favorite Apron Strings Designs.  This was based on this sketch, and is of the party we had before the Dyettes moved to HK. 

Goodbye Dyettes

All in all, a productive weekend.

A long weekend of catching up

This weekend, with the extra day, I was finally able to clear off my scrapping desk and the piles around me.  There are still some piles, but they are much more organized!  I am also preparing for a weekend away scrapping with my friend (yay) so this was a good time to get ready so that I will get a ton done.  So excited!

I found some memorabilia from a trip in 2007 that I had lost for the past three years!  I was so excited.  I knew that I had these things, so I never finished this album.  Let me tell you, it felt GREAT.  Now that is all taken care of.  Plus, it was fun to revisit our trip to Japan. 

I also made about 8 cards and got them ready to mail.  That was an achievement as well.  But, doesn't it feel good when you do something that you know you should do and that someone else will appreciate?

I was able to file and sort through a number of photos, and I am beginning to organize some of my older photos in different ways.  I'm thinking about the kinds of pages I want to make sure to finish (and start) that are important to my story.

I think that I am inspired to do this because of the class I am taking with Ali Edwards.  It really forces you (in a good way) to go down memory lane and question what is really important.  I have had a lot of fun looking at old photos, remembering good memories and taking the time to write some stories down.  This week the prompt was for six childhood memories.  While it is hard to pick 6, I let the photos do the talking, and just went with the photos that called out to me.  In one case, I wrote a story without a photo; I'm proud of myself for doing that, because it is a good story about me.

Here is my layout.  I am still going digital with this class, and I will be so curious to see how these print up!  I'm going to send a batch to be printed as the shipping is the biggest cost.  If I can be patient, I will wait until the class is over.  However...I don't know if I can be that patient!

Thanks for stopping by, I'm enjoying sharing with you.

Weekend Updates

This weekend I had a little time to work on my scrapping projects.  It was a big weekend; the first weekend with a LO from Yesterday and Today with Ali Edwards, and Apron Strings Designs was busy with a Blog Hop and they announced their new Sous Chefs (Design Team).  I had high hopes that I would get a lot done...

Well, I did complete the LO for my class. After a lot of thinking I decided to do this class digitally.  I may still change my mind, but for now I'm going to try this technique.  As I have to scan in most of the photos anyway, this will just streamline everything.  It is a steep learning curve!  Thanks to Jessica Sprauge, I do know a few things, and it is good to practice.

So, here is my title page for this series of LOs about Yesterday and Today.  I managed to get a photo from when I was a baby, my 8th grade graduation, high school, college and today on the side bar.  I was three in the main photo.  It was a lot of fun going through the photos I do have (still missing between 5-10 years old).  I am listening to Ali and trying to go with my gut and use the photos that move me in some way.

For Apron Strings Designs I finished Blog Hop Challenge #3: use pink, orange and lime in a LO.  These were the perfect colors for the day at the fair with Quinn.  These photos are so cute!!!

I'm trying to keep up with the classes, and I look forward to learning more as I go.

New Classes!

I'm starting of 2011 with three new classes.  I'm sure that this will keep me busy...

I'll start last year in 2010.  On the 30th of December I started Yesterday and Today with Ali Edwards through Big Picture Classes.  It is a real treat to spend 12 weeks with Ali.  She is inspiring, creative and so thoughtful.  I know that I will enjoy the message boards as well.  The first activity is introspective, about thinking of 12 stories that you want to tell about yourself (or your family, depending upon the focus of your album).  I've done the brainstorming, but I haven't narrowed it down yet.

The other activity was to go through past LOs and look to see what you liked and didn't like, so as to think about what you want to create during this class.  Overall, I was pleased that I liked all of my old albums (started in 2003).  Many are simple, but I am happy with the story that they tell.  Overall, I am most disappointed when I did not journal, or tell the whole story.  So, my focus will be on telling the whole story for this class.

In preparation for Ali's class (which will incorporate some digital elements) I am taking two classes with Jessica Sprague.  One is on digital scrapbooking, Up and Running, and one is on editing photos, Photo Editing: Good to Great Workflow (which I figure will be useful in the long run).  I am not planning to go digi...love the paper too much...but it is good to have enough of an understanding of digital processes to use the different elements Ali will provide.

So far, in the digital scrapbooking class I have gotten through the first three lessons.  I have created a number of digital layouts, but I haven't really spent a lot of time on my own.  I don't really want to go all digi, so I'm just trying to learn and work through a few things.

Here are some of my projects.  First, I uses a quick page to create this little layout about my niece Quinn.

Next, I practiced some of the same techniques and created this page about my brother.

For lesson two, I had to practice more techniques, and I created this page about my DH.  Not in love with the photos (I may switch them out before I print).

In lesson three I created a page that I actually like.  I think that I will do something fun with this for those included.  Not sure what yet!

I don't have anything specific to show for the photo editing class, but I think that it will be useful.  I'm getting a little bit more comfortable with Elements, and I can see how it can be quite powerful.