My Scrap Life

Monday, April 21, 2008

One Sock, Two Socks

So last night, when the two kidlets were fast asleep, I began tiding up and reorganizing in the chaos known as my house. Among the many items that I picked up were two little baby socks. For some reason it hit me hard. There is something about tiny baby socks to me. They cuddle and warm two little feet that grow but yet at this moment in time there are so small and so precious. Isn’t it amazing how when the house is quiet and everyone is asleep, I seem to appreciate life and my family even more?

I finished my intention from Jessica’s class! The above LO was created after I was inspired by the quiet and calm in my house at night. My daughter love Colby and she is so gentle with him. In return, he lets her do pretty much anything. I love that she loves him. I hope this LO does them justice!

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Three down one to go

Another week has passed at Jessica’s class and another LO has been completed. A couple of things strikes me as this course draws to a close. One, holy cow there are some creative geniuses out there. This obviously includes Jessica who comes up with the designs and instructions for all the LOs, the participants who are asked to complete the assignment and often put their own stamp on the design and finally the participant’s who comment on the completed LO.

The comments are so kind and often hilarious. The above layout is assignment 3a. It is a complete scraplift of Jessica’s assignment. One of the comments (Lyn’s) made me laugh out loud. I had written (in the stats section) that my age was 38 (yikes!). Her comment was perfect and alluded to the fact that 38 was nothing, the 40s were the best and she was 57. I have to say..I checked Lyn’s Lo out. If I look as good as she does at 57...I would be a very very happy woman!!!

Assignment 3b is a continuation of this LO. I had never done a Lo of myself before and that it felt like a great thing to have completed. I was also struck by the fact that I had never done a LO of my husband (sans children) and then I had an aha moment. Why not combine the two LOs!

I also wanted it to be a surprise so I found this picture of him. A little bit of canvas flip, swapping pictures and backgrounds and voila...Me and You. When I showed it to my husband...he said ‘This is your best LO yet!’ Do you think he might be biased??!!!

Thursday, April 10, 2008

Balance

Phew, just did it. I finished assignment 2b for the class. Our mission was to design our own page with using many of the tricks Jessica has taught us. I have to say it’s been getting easier but yet somehow harder. I want my page to flow. I am happy though that these moments are (finally) being documented. The hard part...fitting work, my family and scrapping into 14 hours!

I get a laugh out of people who say that you have to find a ‘balance’ with all the elements in your life. In my experience, when I’m working I think I should be at home with the kids. When I’m with the kids, I think that I should be working more. When they are asleep and I finally get to scrap...I think when’s the last time I (really) spoke with my husband, exercised or finished reading a book. Balance..is there ever really such a thing?

Wednesday, April 9, 2008

Back to School

I’ve just started taking Jessica Sprague ‘s Digi in Deep class and holy camoly..it is amazing. I can’t believe how much I am learning and incorporating in to my layouts. The best part of this class (and scrapping) is it lets me relive those memories and document them. Scrapping lets me express my creative side but at the same time it lets me document those important memories. I want my children (and long suffering husband) to know just how much they mean to me. It’s also entirely selfish. Photos, to me, have a way of taking me back to that exact moment and lets me for a minute be in that place-happy, excited, cold, warm- everything that is part of the emotional component to the experience. Now if only I would look the same way I did 10 years ago!!

Sunday, March 30, 2008

New Techniques

There is so much to learn about Photoshop that sometimes it scares me a little. Part of what fuels my creative process is getting excited by learning new techniques...which may explain why it takes me HOURS to get a layout done but lets not go there! I wanted to figure out how to use the pen tool so entering the magic world of google I found this link and loved the funky light and stars effect. It confused me a bit as I couldn’t figure out how to do it all in photoshop..that is until I found this link and faster than you can say presto pannini another layout idea had been found. I also found a great tutorial by Misty Cato which (I think) gives a very realistic drop shadow to all my frames....a little time consuming but (I think) worth it. What is your favorite technique?