This happened.

(Twice, actually.)

So back in January I was on the Paperclipping Roundtable.  I thought it was a once in a lifetime experience, and I had snapped a selfie, but I never got around to scrapping it - I think it was a combination of time and pressure - being on PRT was like that rare trip to Disney...just way too WOW to tackle.

At the very end of May, I was asked to be on again! WOOT!  Again I snapped a selfie (far less flattering this time!) and vowed that I would get it documented sooner rather than later.  Today was the sooner:

Thoughts:

• I'm okay with the selfie from January - our apartment is chilly in the winter, and the scarf was there for function not looks, but let's face it: scarves hide a litany of flaws.  The shot in May?  I look sort of hot and gross.  I converted it to black and white which helped, but I decided that I would just as soon hide the second shot.
• I've been toying with the idea of joining a kit club for a year now and I caved in May.  My first Studio Calico kit arrived this week and hot diggity!  So much fun!  I tried to stick with just items in the kit, but the green stars paper is from my stash.  The #selfie paper is actually the b-side of the same green star paper.  The stickers I used for "happened" are also old(er).  They're Kelly Purkey from Simon Says Stamp and I love them.  The glassine bag isn't part of the kit, but I did buy them as an add on.  I think they're handy and I use them with some regularity.  (These glassine envelopes are new, but I have other sizes in my stash already)
• I used Studio Calico paper called "Up Hill" as the base.  I suppose at first glance that doesn't make sense.  But I think of the "scrapbook community" and that Paperclipping Roundtable is...idunno...a cross between the local pub and the weekly call in radio show.  Or something. ;)  But there's definitely that sense of community/neighborhood, which makes the paper make more sense.
• I was surprised that there wasn't a bunch "this happened" choices in the Silhouette store.  I think there was only one, and I wasn't a fan.  However, I was pleased with the word "this" in the "this year" shape.  I figured I could easily do "happened" in either a block letter or in Thickers.  Fun fact: I own exactly ONE package of Thickers.  They look like the font used in Spongebob Squarepants, not exactly the look I was going for here.  But who only owns ONE SET of Thickers??  Well, me.  Because I'm cheap, and the Silhouette saves me oodles of money that way.  (Yes, let's just ignore that I used other letter stickers. :P)

So, like I said - I'm not a fan of the selfie taken in May. So I hid it.  I decided to tuck the journaling in the glassine envelope.  I loved using all the fun, happy colors that came in the Hello, hello kit.  The pictures span seasons, so I didn't feel obligated to gear the colors toward winter, even though that's the season of the picture that shows.  To me, the color scheme is "whatever makes me happy!"

And these are the two inserts.  So many pretty colors!

Okay, that's it for me today! Thank you for stopping by!

Almost Finished

"Cakes get done, people get finished."  I wonder what little quirky sayings my children will remember about me?  Wow, new world record for digressing.

Last Friday I was heading in to class, walking the long way around to avoid some stairs (giving my knees a rest) and I looked up at exactly the right time.  I usually take the stairs, so I get a different, less photogenic view.  When I looked up and saw the school from this angle, with the tree and the glow of the inside lights - I knew I had to back up a foot or two and get a quick Instagram. 

Sometimes it seems to take forever for Instagram to boot up.  Especially if one is running a little late or if it's chilly (definitely the later for me, I'm usually pretty good about being punctual).  So while I waited I was thinking about I only had 4 more classes in the semester.  That day and one more week.  This is the last math class that I'm taking.  Next semester I'll have one more class, but I'll only have 2 or 3 actual classes - after that we'll be set lose for student teaching.  It'll be a TON of work for certain, but a different kind of work.  More meaningful, more immediate, more urgent, with bigger stakes and more direct feedback.  I'm a little scared and VERY excited.  And yes, all these thoughts ran through my head waiting for Instagram to fire up.

And I wanted to take some time to document this - the excitement, anticipation, nervousness and immediacy - before it was in the past.  

I have a pile of glassine envelopes - I think I picked them up at this weird bulk paper goods place not too far from here.  I've had them forever, and used some and there, oh, and here, too!  (Isn't it great when you have evidence that actually used stuff you bought??)  I also bought a huge box of library cards from a teacher supply store.  I think there were 500 cards in the box and it cost about $11.  I've used a ton of them, too, but barely made a dent in the box.  They've been great for journaling, die cutting and even just making lists or quick notes.  Today I used them for hand journaling.  *Gasp*! I rarely hand journal, for a whole bunch of reasons, but the library cards are liberating, especially in the glassine envelopes - it's easy to start over, the handwriting doesn't have to be perfect since it's pretty well concealed, and I don't have to worry about keeping it short, since I can easily stack lots of the library cards in the pocket. That's a win/win to me.

 Some detail shots.  I don't necessarily think you want or need them, but I'm getting into the habit anyway.  

Some favorites right now:

• Have I mentioned lately how much I ♥♥♥ aflairforbuttons at Etsy?  Oh, I have, haven't I?? Naughty blogger!
• I just found the font Grand Hotel at fontsquirrel.com.  Wait.  Wasn't I just talking about them recently, too?  Hmmm.  I'm turning into my grandmother maybe. 
• The "Math Notebook Washi" blends in too well, which is a crying shame.  It's beautiful.  Freckled Fawn is genius for making it. For me. Let's go with that. I like to feel special, and it's working. 

And there's no link for it, but I do like the swoopy way I did the stitching.  I don't know why I did it, or why I like it so much, but I do.  

And I wonder if I'm the only person who's guilty of using leftover tidbits from recent layouts, even it it might not actually work.  The little star (next to the heart)?  It's a leftover from a recent football layout.  The scalloped circle under the owl is a leftover scrap of paper from that same layout.  The scallop shape is one I just used in a Christmas project I'll share next week.  But when I knew I wanted a scalloped circle to ground the flair, I know exactly which one I wanted to use. And why. (It's the 5 scalloped circles from the Silhouette store.)  The little white tag and the red heart were also in my little bowl of leftover die cuts.  And the aqua blue thread was the thread on sewing machine.  It only just barely works, but it doesn't NOT work, so I wasn't going to go to the effort of changing it out.  I don't know if that's laziness or a sign that I've gone zen in my old age.

I hope that you had a fantastic Thanksgiving and are making it through Black Friday untrampled. 

Plan on stopping by Monday afternoon.  We did a fun project for the Silhouette blog and I'm really excited to see what the other girls came up with and I'll have some extra details and thoughts on here. 

See you then!

Scrapbooking from the Soul

(a class with Jill Sprott at twopeasinabucket)

At the risk of sounding cocky, I used to think I was a really good journaler. I used to finish a layout and think "Yeah. I nailed that story."  Maybe not after every layout, but certainly far more frequently than I feel that now.  In truth, I feel like none of my recent layouts have been particularly poignant.  I'm sure there are valid influences at play. Maybe it's harder to emote about teenagers?  Maybe the complexity of my living arrangements have left me guarded? Maybe it goes all the way back to the divorce?   This is most probably the closest.  After the separation I gave up scrapbooking all together for a couple of years.  And when I picked it up again, things had definitely shifted in my mindset...

Whatever the reason, I want to change it.  At $12, Jill's class seemed like a good idea.  Over this past weekend I had pulled out a picture of Ted.  He was sitting in my old bedroom, watching t.v. with me and soaking his feet in vinegar water.  He would probably prefer that I not share this with the whole world, but Ted's feet can really hum.  So every couple of weeks during baseball and football seasons he soaks his feet in vinegar water.  It's a miracle cure for foot odor.  No lie.

I feel like there's so much to say.  But when I looked at the photo all that came to me was schmaltzy 'soaking up' puns.  Ugh.  I love this kid and I'm so impressed and proud of him and the way he carries himself, his work ethic, how kind and helpful he is, and ....and...and...and a hundred other great qualities.  But nothing bubbled to the surface without making me groan.

I wanted to have a nod to the fact that he was soaking his feet, but I wanted it to be subtle.  My take-away from the first lesson of Scrapbooking from the Soul was to look past the obviousness of the photo and find the bigger story.  It occurred to me that we're really just entering Ted's teenage years.  He's rounding the corner to 15, but I sometimes lose sight of that - he is so tall, so manly, and so mature that I forget that he's just 14.  When the phrase 'getting our feet wet' popped into my head I knew that was something I could run with.

I'm going to share the journaling, but please keep in my mind that I have a degree in math for a reason.  While I enjoy writing for my personal use, it's never been anything to served me well academically.  So...be nice. :P

We’re only about a year and a half into Ted’s teenage years.  I feel like we’re just getting our feet wet here.  If you believe the hype about raising teenagers that’s perpetuated by sit-coms, this is supposed to be hard, eye-rolling work.  Everything from getting him to take out the garbage to getting him to bathe should be a massive undertaking. But that’s so not the case with Ted.  Maybe it’s the athletic training? Maybe it’s just his genetic make-up?  But Ted has always been a good kid.  Not perfect, mind you, but he really strives to do good. I suppose that in some regards I’ve been holding my breath, waiting and wondering if the teenage years will change that about him.  
  We’re just getting our feet wet here.  There’s still a long way to go and I’m hoping the trajectory we’re on continues.  I love that Ted respects others and that he respects himself, too.  I love that Ted isn’t too cool to give his mom big, floppy hugs.  I love that he thinks about others and will do sweet things to make others happy.  Yes, I can’t deny that his willingness to take the garbage out without being told is a personality trait that I hope lasts forever.  But in this photo, Ted is soaking his feet in vinegar water and watching t.v. with me.  I adore the fact that he’s willing to do both of these things.  One demonstrates his respect for self, the other one just makes me warm and fuzzy.  Thank you, Ted, for keeping me company and making me so proud to be your mom.

Thanks for stopping by.  And if $12 won't break your bank, I do highly recommend "Scrapbooking with Soul."  It's good stuff.

The Game Day Chili project

So last week I shared the page and card I made using the Jillibean Soup Game Day Chili collection and mentioned that there was one other item left.  Well, once again I'm at work with not enough customers to keep me busy.  Thank goodness these slow periods come only occasionally...otherwise I'd have to spit polish my resume.

By the way, I wonder what my non-scrapping Facebook friends think when these weird, non-scrappy titles show up in their newsfeeds.  Yeah.  Nothing to see here, folks. Look away.

So anyway...

One of the things that I was asked to play with was a Maya Road acrylic ATC stand.  It came with four teeny, tiny little pieces of chipboard.  I thought about the different possibilities, but I have to admit: I tend to like my pictures BIG.  That's probably been one of the biggest challenges I faced when I switched to 8½x11, and these tiny pages weren't going to do.  So I started thinking.  Calendar? Not enough pages.  (Although, you could so easily add extra pages to this format) Luckily, the next thing that popped into my head was a keeper.  Ted plays travel baseball and I do take a lot of pictures, but there's other stuff I want to remember: names and numbers of his teammates, who they played and the final scores, and then Ted's highlights: home runs, good pitching, getting the game ball, that kind of thing.  The format is small, but I created a little pocket for each page and used my Cameo to cut tiny little tabbed pages that I can fill out and tuck in the pocket.  I know I'll need a couple of pages for each pocket, so they're cut and ready to go.

I'm really pleased with the way the project turned out and Ted  seemed to think it was a neat idea.  The Game Day Chili was the perfect line for this - sporty, fun, graphic, and not over-powering.

So here are some pictures:

So this is the cover.  I love the "for the record" title - it's just straight from the Silhouette store.  The Game Day Chili is kraft cardstock based, so I just flipped it over and cut it out using the plain side for easy readability.  I cut out 4 or 5 and stacked them all together to give it height.  Darn that Nichol Magouirk for getting me hooked on this technique.  I truly love it, but of course I'm going through paper like crazy and putting extra wear and tear on my blades and mats, but that's OK! It's worth it.  The L'Oreal of scrap techniques, I tell you!

Again, love the title, but this time it's Kerri Bradford: Studio from The Ol' Ballgame collection.  I love her work - it's so clean and graphic and she really prides herself on giving you a ton of options to play with.    Again, multiple layers for some dimension.  The pocket was cut from the blank side of the GDC (as I like to call it when I get tired from typing Game Day Chili over and over again).  I traced the curve of the chipboard page and cut it out carefully and adhered using Red Line Tape.  That stuff is pretty amazing.  Just make sure you're only sticking where you want something to stick for-ev-er.  Here's a secret: I don't actually cut any better than anyone else does.  The way to have that curve be just right is to take a sanding block to the edges to work out any of the hard edges and make the two sides become one.  I guess I should have mentioned that I adhered that stripe strip before I did the sanding.  But you knew that, right? ;)

Whereas I will unabashed proclaim my love for the other two titles, that will not be happening here.  I guess it's okay looks-wise (I can say this, since I just put it together using fonts on my computer) but this is the title that took about a day and a half and caused me to lose several fists-full of hair. That was the day my Cameo was acting up.  The title is fine, but every time I look at this I know my blood pressure will spike a little bit.

Not much to say here.  35 is Ted's number, so this is the page that I intend to record his hot-shot-ness.  Let's all hope this page doesn't end up blank at the end of the season. :P  This is Ted's first year on the A team and I'm worried that he's gone from big fish/little pond to normal fish/big pond.  That's the mother in me though.  He'll be fine.  It's me I'm worried about.  ;)

One other point of note.  The chipboard that came in the kit was standard grey.  I covered it in black cardstock (again, by tracing, cutting and sanding) and then used a Staz On ink pad to black up the edges.  I don't like the middles not matching.

I think this came out really neat.  It's one of my most favorite things that I've made in a while.  Up there with the owl treat boxes and the bird ornaments.  I shouldn't play favorites, but I do.  ;)

Thanks for stopping by!  I have three lines that I'm working on for April, so I'll have more to share later.  But of course, it'll be a while.  ;)

Slow and steady wins the race.

Or so I've been told.

I cannot believe that I'm still chugging away on this mini book from our trip to RIT last August.  The last time I posted about this book was October 14th, and even that was the most boring thing ever written about  scrapbooking.  No, seriously, go look for yourself.  At least it's short.  And the funny thing is, it actually relates to what I'm sharing today.

This is embarrassing. I sell cameras for a living. I *know* photography. Grrrr.  The beautiful matte finish of the pictures does not capture well.  Sadly, my lovely pizza shot looks dull and grainy.  Alas, it's just the paper finish.

See that library card? See how it's mounted on the black index file folder tabbed whichamajig?  That was the subject of the most boring post ever.  But you know what? I dig it.  The book is still a work in progress and as such it isn't on the book rings yet.  Once it's all put together it'll be its own little page.  What's shown here is the journaling for the next page.

Here's the other side, (the journaling about lunch) shown with the next page.

That is not my favorite picture of Maggie, but it was a HOT weekend.  We all looked a little wilted. She just documented.  Sorry Maggie. :P  

The weekend we went my camera was off in repair.  I had decided while it was gone that I was going to sell it when it came back and, knowing that, I had ordered the D7000.  I had the highest of hopes that my new camera would arrive in time for our trip.  You  know when it showed up? Literally as we were walking into the registration area. That's when I got a text from my boss saying it had arrived. GAH!  For the trip I had a little Fuji Instax Mini camera.  Maggie had the Fuji I had given her for Christmas and Kerig had his camera.  These are the pictures that Maggie took when she was roaming around the campus on her own on Friday evening.  I was really surprised at how similar a lot of our shots were - the campus is huge and I thought I had gotten the "behind the scenes" tour with my former-RIT student/personal tour guide.  These are the pictures that Maggie took.

And these are the pictures I took. :P  One really neat thing about the Fuji Instax camera is the cute little photos.  One really frustrating thing about the Fuji Instax is that the cute little photos aren't very flexible when trying to cram five on a mini book page.  So I made me a pocket!  Take that, cute little Fuji Instax photos!  Besides, turns out my film got a little heat damaged and all the colors are somewhat muted.  But I like the pocket. Right?

Right?

The first "spread."

And the second.

I am not patting myself on the back.
But that's so dern cute.














I'm really close to being done this project and I'm so happy that I can end it on a happy note.

Thanks for stopping by!

Progress

So today was a monumental day in these parts.  Turns out things got ironed out which made approaching my scrap table doable.  And after a day of wrestling with school stuff I really needed to have a chance to play.

So here's what I came up with today:



It's funny how things happen in scrapbooking.  I only had the one photo that I wanted to use on this page. Later pages will have tons of photos and collages of photos, but for this one, I just wanted to highlight Maggie.  I also wanted to lay the basic groundwork on the journaling, which meant I needed a bigger space.  Boy, everything felt awkward, and I had already cut and mentally committed to the grunge argyle strip.  ("Mentally committed to"?  I'm keeping that!)  No matter where I placed my journaling block (or the rectangle of paper used to represent my journaling block - does anyone else do that?) it was awkward.  At first my block was horizontal, which meant that it had to be placed high or low on the page, or else it was going to completely cover the argyle strip.  Then I remembered that on my last trip to Hollo's I picked up these glassine envelops. I can't for the life of me remember if I had some purpose in mind for them, so if I can't remember then I think they're fair game.  I loved that adding them and slipping the journalin card into the pocket so seamlessly solved my problems.  The flow works, I'm not covering my argyle strip.  It's functional AND cool.  And I *think* I have enough envelops to get through the book, although at this point I don't feel like I have to use them on every page.

Some detail shots.  I am really frustrated by these.  I pulled out my point and shoot to take these shots only to find my battery was exhausted.  Well poop.  The one really nice thing about a point and shoot camera is built in macro capability.  But that's okay, I can deal - it's not like I don't have a shiny new D7000 to use!  So I pull that out and then kind of make faces at my camera bag.  Do I use my 105mm macro?  It has close focusing capabilities, but it's slow to focus, kinda hard to hand hold, and the working distance is about 5 miles.  At one point in time, I L♥VED that lens.  But that was on my film camera.  It's just not the same with digital.  Here's a secret: in the very near future, I am going to splurge and buy this 40mm Micro-Nikkor lens.  Hopefully it'll bring the joy back to macro photography.  The detail shots above aren't macro, just tightly cropped parts of much bigger pictures.  I suppose it doesn't really matter to others, but it kinda bugs me.  

What else am I frustrated with? Getting adhesive on those teeny-tiny butterflies!  Trying to figure out what ribbon-y type stuff to put in the metal word tag!  The way the green star looks - I should have stopped before dumping a third later of glitter on it.  

What do I like so far?  That I haven't used plain cardstock at all yet (Oh, except for the layers under the titles - but that doesn't count.) I like the way the page looks with the clear title pages on top (the way it will be when it's all done.)  I like the envelops and the vertical journaling - I think that's going to work out well.  I like that I'm using flowers and butterflies, and that it feels "authentic" - I feel like a poser using that word, but in the past, trying to use them felt forced.  But in this case they feel more natural.  I think the difference is that this time they really mean something to me - beauty and changes that are taking place.

So that's where I am today.  I probably won't have a chance to play again until next week. But it's nice to know it's there where I need it.  

Summer 2011 ♥ mini book

I think it's funny when people say "I carry a little notebook to write down my ideas so I won't forget them!"
Since my head, at any given time, is filled with thoughts like:
•How many people will be home for dinner tonight?
•Who has a game today, which uniform do they need, and is it clean?
•Have I had any vegetables or water today?
•Why are there Chewy bar wrappers in the wash? Why can't I teach them to empty their pockets?
And the like.  There's no room for ideas, much less the quantity or quality that would merit a dedicated notebook.  Oh, how I envy those who can look at freshly laundered Chewy bar wrappers and have an a-ha! moment.  I'm not one of them.

Soooo, you can only imagine how thrilled I am that I not only had an a-ha! moment but that I actually made it happen...even without the benefit of having written it down in a notebook.  Yay me!

A little back story:
I've been shooting a Nikon D300 for the last 3½ years and I've loved it, but in the last year or two I've been noticing these weird, oily looking spots appearing on pictures.  At first it was just one or two, and they weren't always there.  But as time went by the number of spots rose as did their size.  It got to the point that I couldn't ignore them or just quick-fix them in PhotoShop.  So I packed it up and sent it off for repair.  But repairs take forever, and it's summer.  So when I saw this cute little Fuji 7s that instantly spits out wallet size pictures, I decided that it could help me through the summer.

Not even a week into my new love affair with the Fuji Kerig and I went on a mini adventure that included a trip to Hollo's Paper in Brunswick.  Now, at the risk of offending the owners of Hollo's: this place is a dump.  However, it is the exact kind of dump that any papercrafter secretly enjoys.  It's like a giant garage sale of office and restaurant supplies, they have envelopes of all sizes and room full of the super inexpensive, good quality card stock in basic colors.  After my recent LOAD, I needed to restock my pile of white cardstock and $1.75 got me a stack that would have cost $15.99 at Archiver's: SCORE.  While there I came across these cute little coin envelopes (they may not be the exact same size), only sold individually for something crazy like 3¢ a piece.  Even I can afford 10 or 15 of those!  And it occurred to me that they were just the right size for the little wallet sized photos the Fuji makes.  Hmmm.  Wheels-a-turnin'!  I see a mini-book.  Another thing that caught my eye was a stack of old fashioned ledger paper.  I tried to find something like it to show you online, but apparently this has been sitting at Hollo's since roughly 1957 and they're the only ones who still have it.  At any rate: $1.50 for one hundred sheet? Yes, please!  Do I care if it's acid free?  Like I care if this shit holds up after I'm dead...   ;)  But maybe it is?  I would think that paper meant for accounting documents would be made to last.  Maybe.

After we went to Hollo's we headed to Fairlawn, where I got to shop at Archiver's.  As luck would have it, I am dating one of the few men who understands the notion of scrapbooking.  He's also very patient with me, because it's not like shopping for scrapbooking stuff is quick.  After probably an hour of hemming and hawing I headed to the register and we were on our way.

And the Fuji 7s + Hollo's envelopes and ledger paper + misc scrap supplies = Summer 2011 ♥ mini book.

See how perfectly sized these envelopes are to work with these photos?  Love it!  And the Fuji 7s has a little itty-bitty mirror on the ring around the lens, which is super wide - perfect for arms-length self portraits for two.  :)

Here is where I point out that the camera is not, by any means, perfect.  That is one very underexposed manfriend.  But the ice cream looks yummy, no?  ;)  Oh, and I'm going to roll my eyes at that flower every time I look at this page.  I had one that was green, blue and red plaid that really went with the colors, only I grabbed the wrong one.  Didn't notice my error until long after I had stuck it down with Magic Tape, and we all know that stuff doesn't just peel up for a quick change.  Oops.

Ok.  And this is where I confess that I was watching the mini-series "The Kennedys" on Netflix while I was doing this.  And I wasn't paying 100% attention to either.  Which is why the left page sports a little pocket. When I did the other side of this envelope (the picture of the ice cream), I didn't realize that I was adhering everything to an upside down envelope.  Oops.  So the pocket is two-fold: it serves to cover up my massive Oopsy! and it also holds this page's journaling.  Each page has a little note writen on that ledger paper I talked about tucked side the envelope.  That really doesn't work if it's going to fall out of the bottom every time it's picked up.  So yeah...major drop back and punt going on here.  And yet, if I didn't tell you my secret you'd just think I was shakin' things up a bit.  Maybe.

One of the interesting things that I found out about this camera is that it turns over-exposed parts of the picture black.  And that is SUPER weird, because standard film and digital just makes it white.  So my head is strategically placed in front of the sun, because the black circle that appeared for the sun in our first try was really disconcerting.

I think if I were to do this again, I would take more care in the whole placement for the rings.  I had to go through and cut a notch out so the envelopes can be opened. Doh.  Obviously attention to detail and thinking things all the way through are not my strong suits.  Oh well, live and learn.

And this is why the pockets need to be accessible. Each one contains some journaling, as well as extra pictures.  The ones that I used on the outside are all I need to tell the story, but at a $1 a pop, I'm not throwing the decent duds away. (The bad duds?  They get tossed.  But the others stayed)

I love the freedom of mini-books.  You pick some colors, you pick a shape, a theme and the rest is just barreling through and creative play.  I like that you can make things as fat as you want them because straining page protectors aren't an issue.  I love that journaling tucked in pockets can still be read without a major hoo-ha. I love that I can step away from my usual clean style and try something new.

And that's my visual supply list, minus the can of ancient American Craft plastic flowers I forgot to take out of my pocket for the picture.

I'm proud that:
•I had an idea and I actually made it happen.
•I used so much stuff from recent shopping trips.  with the exception of the envelopes, nothing was purchased with this (or for that matter, ANY) project in mind.
•I dug into my stash of old stuff and used things that I've had for years and years.

Thanks for stopping by.  If you read all of this: holy hell.  Sorry!  I hope you at least enjoyed the pictures!
☺ Caroline

Two Things

Number 1

Man, I love my new OTT Lite!!




I happened to stumble across the deal of the century at joann.com, where this usually $79.99 lamp was on clearance for $19.99. There was also free shipping on orders over $50, and adding this to my cart conveniently saved me $6. Sadly, it's no longer available at JoAnn's (at least not at joann.com), but I was able to find one at Amazon. It's at $35, and there's a couple in black for $39. Still a good deal, if you ask me. The color of the light is wonderful. It sits at about eye level, but the slight shade keeps it from bugging my eyes but it doesn't seem to damped the light's spread. The result is actually being able to see, without straining my eyes or second guessing what colors I'm working with. It's so great not to be casting a shadow on my projects.
YAY for OTT-Lite, and YAY for great sales!!

Number 2

Thanks to the Ott-Lite I was able to actually take pictures of my most recent Circle Journal project. Before I would wait for daylight to get a decent shot, and even then I'd do a fair amount of fussing to get it just right. Granted, these shots aren't bound for Nat'l Geographic, but I took four shots, and I'm sharing three. And I'm not sharing the 4th because I realize there's a misspelling. Oops.





So this CJ has a "Sweet Treats" theme. I have to admit, this one stressed me out a bit. I don't consider myself very handy in the kitchen, and I knew when I heard the theme that I wanted use this recipe, but frankly, this recipe has a failure rate of about 85%. It's "Magic Marshmallow Crescent Puffs", and you bake the marshmallows, which are drenched in melted butter and rolled in cinnamon and sugar, in a crescent rolls, seal it tight and hope that the exploding marshmallow doesn't escape from the roll...and leak out everywhere. It still tastes great, but it's not exactly the kind of thing you want to take a picture of. And even if you did, no one would be inspired to try the recipe. Not pretty.

But the gods were on my side, and they actually came out yummy looking. I'd like to take credit for the photo, but I was in mini-freak-out mode about getting the puffs out of the tins without messing them up, and getting them drizzled "just so"...not that it really mattered, you can barely see it. As luck would have it, I know people who can use a camera and can be paid off with food.





Silhouette. There. You knew it was coming, everything I do has that thing somewhere. The size of this particular albums is TINY. Cute, but tiny. And I found that I needed more real estate, and my solution was to cut the file folder shape from the Sil, which allowed me to squeeze in a second picture (the bowl of marshmallows. i.e. the "before" shot. That one I took.) as well as the big journaling block about my mediocre cooking skillz.

The album is handmade, out of - can you believe it? - brown lunch bags. You decorate one side of the bag, and slide your recipe inside. Originally my recipe was on two cards, and worried about how the two cards would stay together, so I made the pocket. Jury's still out on the pocket. Frankly, I think it's cute, but it adds more bulk than I think this album can take. I ended up backing the two cards to each other. I think I may ditch the pocket...


So that's this month's CJ saga. I hand this off on Saturday and get the next one. (I hope!) I'm really having so much fun with this!

Circles

I think one of the neatest things about scrapbooking...well, after the shopping, buying, organizing and general fawning over products, is the wonderful sense of community that this hobby brings. There's a sense of camaraderie when you meet a fellow scrapbooker. That moment of "Oh, you're crazy too! We should get along just fine."

I find myself, for the first time in nine years, NOT working in a scrapbooking environment. This, for sure, has it's pluses, but I do miss (ever so slightly) the daily elbow-bumping of my fellow crazies.

Which makes me glad that prior to leaving the scrapbook store I set up a "circle journal" with my coworkers. This project is giving me that sense of community, the feeling of inclusion, and fills me with excitement.

If you're scratching your head and wondering what a circle journal is, relax, you're not alone. I only know about it because I was lucky enough to see journals being passed around, and I thought the idea was so intriguing it really stuck with me. A circle journal (or CJ) is an album that you create that has a theme. You create a page based on your theme, and then you pass the album onto the next person, who then creates her page addressing the same theme. Meanwhile, you've taken an album from someone else and you complete a layout based on that person's theme. Once you're finished you're going to pass it along to the same person you passed your first album to, and receive a new album from the same person who handed off to you before. Thus, the journals pass from person to person, making a circle once it gets handed back to its creator.

The albums are usually a smaller format, and generally have enough room for each participant to make a one or two page layout. The group of people involved can be people you know ahead of time, or may be people that you meet online through a message board, or if you're lucky you may be asked to round out someone else's CJ. It's best if you have 8 to 14 people. Too small a group will give you a book that's on the wimpy side, with probably not enough diversity. Too many, and you won't see your book returned to you for a year or more! Oh, that's another point, you have to decide upfront how long you have to create your entry before passing on to the next person. Our group chose a month, but everyone seems to leave it to the very last minute, so you could easily make the time frame shorter.

Themes for CJ can be anything your heart desires. Some themes in the CJ I'm in now are Sweet treats (a recipe album with a focus on sweets), Your favorite book, What makes your heart happy, spontaneous trips, holiday traditions, getting to know you... I've seen CJs with Pet Peeves, Hometowns, Shoes (thank God I don't have to create a layout based on my pathetic shoe "collection"), Music, Bucket List, etc., etc., etc. And it is always so fascinating to me to see these books. Not just the scrapbooking aspect - it's so fun to see every one's different styles, but I love seeing every one's responses to the themes. I find myself really wanting to read about someone else's hometown, and what drives everyone else crazy and what every hopes to accomplish before they die. Fascinating!

Whew. That was a long explanation! And yet, that's just the bare bones basics. We could talk for hours. Okay, maybe a half hour, but it would be a jam-packed half hour.

My little group of ladies started our journals in October, and I just completed my second one, not including my own. I'll share the one I just completed, but today I wanted to show the album I created.

This is my album. I used a Theresa Collins board book as my base. The book, as you buy it, is three tabbed pages, and I have a feeling these are meant to be kind of chapter separators, but I decided to make them my pages, and purchased several books. Because of the tremendous thickness of the book, I decided to limit my CJ to just one page per person. My theme is "Random Childhood Memories" and the title is cut from vinyl using my Silhouette. I love that the Silhouette software allows me to design in relationship - meaning I can create each word and position and size them independently so that they "go" perfectly with the other elements.


There are lots of ways to set up a CJ, and certainly there are no hard and fast rules. I wanted to create a place for each participant to sign in, answer a couple of questions pertaining to the topic, and (hopefully) add a picture of themselves. Space was an issue, so I decided to make these library pockets, also cut using the Silhouette (it's one of their designs). "Roll Call", the dots and every one's names are also cut on the Silhouette.



Just a close up of the pocket. You get a better look at the little questionnaire, which was created in Word. Nothing fancy. I'm not Word guru, so fancy isn't on the menu.



And lastly, this shot shows my intro/welcome page. It tells how I came to chose the topic, it asks them to fill out the card in the pocket and lets them know what I'm hoping they'll do.

Somehow I managed to send my book off into the wild without a picture of my page about my random childhood memories. You'll have to take my word for it: it was way cute, right down to the picture of me in one of my smocked Sunday dresses with the family's VW Bug in the background. It did not, however, follow the black, white and red theme I had for the intro section. I wanted to have a clear delineation of the business part of the book and the fun part of the book.

Okay, so that's today's monster post. I will grab some pictures of the layout I just did and post again soon. I would strongly encourage anyone even remotely interested in the idea of a circle journal to find a group that's forming and join in, or take the bull by the horns and start one yourself. Additional information such as theme suggestions and samples can be found here, here and here.