Tuesday Update

Sorry I've been so MIA recently. I've been so busy with vacation & then Memorial Day Weekend. Lots of time spent with family. I'm back in civilization, and back to scrapping. I've got some major updates to give, but in the meantime, just wanted to share some of my favorite pictures from my trip to California with my hubby & his family:

Random picture by the Carmel Mission in Monterey Bay - I just really liked the sign & the vines next to it



California's full of the prettiest wildflowers - some of which have weird names like the Sticky Monkey Flower. Not sure what this batch is called, but we took the pictures on the way to look at McWay Cove.





The cove itself was absolutely gorgeous - perfect white sand beach, a running waterfall, and clear aquamarine waters. I really wanted to walk on the sand by the beach, but it's a preserved landmark so look only.



My favorite pictures of the trip were these candids of Rob's dad. He's so funny and wacky - willing to try anything once pretty much. This is him squeezing into the side of a rock to get a picture of us:



This is him trying to squeeze through the locked gate of the Legion of Honor museum in San Fran to get a better look at the Thinker.





Sunset at Carmel Beach:



A random overlook on the coast of California (Route 1) between Big Sur & Monterey (I think - the drive on Route 1 lasted forever, and I dozed in and out, so I wasn't paying too close attention).



This is a really neat picture, although unfortunately, my digital SLR broke for this part of the trip (*cry*) so it's only taken with the point-and-shoot. This is Mirror Lake in Yosemite National Park. That's Rob & his sister sitting on the stone.



Rob & me by Nevada Falls - yes - I hiked - 7 miles too, up 2 waterfalls and back down, and I survived...maybe not in the best condition the next day, but hey - it's definitely a sense of accomplishment. I don't think I'll be trying that again anytime soon though. I was terrified coming back down the side of the falls.



I can't wait to finally get settled back in and start scrapping again. I've got my June design team submission coming up fast, and the elusive Disney album that was started ages ago but never finished, and I've also got to wrap up the album of my neice & nephew for my sister for her birthday in June. One layout at a time....

Hollywood!

Day 1 of vacation was spent walking around Hollywood. This is Tracy's aspiration - to be a producer. Hollywood is honestly a bit cheesy, but it's still fun to walk around and hope to catch a glimpse of someone famous. We didn't see anyone in Hollywood, but ate lunch at the Grand Lux Cafe, where we saw Tony Cox, the elf in Bad Santa at the table behind us.

Some pictures by the Kodak Theatre:







The Grauman Chinese theatre - really I'm wondering what it was that made this theatre so famous, especially compared to the very run-down Grauman Egyptian theatre just down the street.



I thought this caption written by Humphrey Bogart was especially amusing:



A very far off view of the Hollywood sign from the Kodak Theatre - we spent quite a bit of time trying to figure out how to get closer up for a picture. There aren't any signs or other directions posted anywhere about how to get there. After searching on the internet a bit, we found out that you basically have to drive up through a residential area and then follow a small trail up around the hills to get within about 100 yds of the sign. I guess the residents in the area decided they didn't want too many tourists making that trek all the time.



We didn't feel like following the trail all the way to the top - so we settled for this picture - you can see the famous LA smog graying out the horizon.



This would have been a nice picture of us - but unfortunately, the camera was focused on the background, so we're a bit blurry.



We think the small cluster of white buildings in the background might actually be Tracy's apartment building, so of course, we had to take a picture =)



Today is Tracy's graduation from the USC film school, so we'll be going to that and the reception afterward. Then we're off tomorrow to Monterey. Have a happy Friday everyone!

Going on Vacation!

We're going to be in CA for the next 2 weeks. I'll try to upload some pictures along the way, but that means no scrapbooking for me for a bit. One of these days I mean to take a scrapbooking vacation like one of those cruises.

Anway - no travel journal this time because 1. I was too busy to put one together and 2. California isn't exotic enough for me to make a special travel journal for it.

We're at the airport now waiting for our flight. This is us:

I need to kick this habit of staying up all night the night before vacation to pack and make sure we get to the airport on time.

Quotes About Scrapbooking

Someone on one of my lists emailed a set of quotes out to us about scrapbooking. Here are some of my favorites:

Blessed are the children of scrapbookers, for they shall inherit the scrapbooks. ~Author Unknown

I scrapbook therefore I am - broke. ~Author Unknown

My husband lets me have all the scrapbooking supplies I can hide. ~Author Unknown

A true scrapbook addict is one who stages photographs to match paper she likes. ~Author Unknown

Scrapbooking fills my days - not to mention my living room, bedroom and closets! ~Author Unknown

My Craft Room

A few of my friends have been asking me to post pictures of my craft room for a while now. I'm a procrastinator, so of course it takes 8 months to get around to it. Actually - it's mostly because my room is almost never clean enough to take nice photos of. I finally got around to it today. I have to say ~ I love love love this room. The 1.5 hour commute everyday to work might suck, but hey, this is worth it...errr, most of the time anyway.







This is what my desk looks like most of the time...



Oh and for some fun...yes - that is our christmas tree...still up...in May...

Me on the Martha Stewart Show

Okay - so today was the airing of the Martha Stewart show that I attended. I was a bit scared because I heard that Gov. Corzine did a special announcement that took up like 30 minutes of show time, but luckily I got in right before they cut to the special announcement.

Here is my 3 second clip =) You can see that I was too busy looking up at the TV screens to look at the camera. Haha, obviously, I'm not really a TV person, but I'm kind of relieved that I don't look that much heavier on camera than in real life. Was a bit afraid of that.



You can see a quick shot of Julie to my right, before they cut to Martha.

Cozumel Travel Journal

Before starting my new job in February, I wanted to take a vacation to relax a bit and rejuvenate. Me and my girlfriend Arpita decided to take a well-deserved trip to Cozumel. I didn't want this to turn into yet another trip that I intend to scrap about and never do. Since it was only a long weekend trip, I figured that a travel journal would suffice to cover this entire trip.

Using the ideas in the article "Make Your Own Travel Journal" by Vicki Chrisman in the june/july 2006 issue of Scrapbook Answers, I made my Cozumel Travel Journal out of manila envelopes and some cardstock. The manila envelopes serve to make a sturdier base for your journal, and also providing some pockets that are just the right size to insert pamphlets & maps from your trip.

If you'd like detailed instructions, you can email me.

The Cover



To bind the album, I used one of the new Basic Grey Magnetic buckles and some ribbon. I love the way that this looks, especially the color of this particular buckle which just seemed perfect for a Cozumel vacation.

Inside Pages






One of the pockets created by the manila envelope that's folded in half.

Supplies to take with you:

I actually took tons of stuff with me on this trip to work on the journal with, but only used a few things in the end. Here's my list of items that I found most helpful.

• 1-2 journaling pens (1 black, and 1 other of your choice - I like blue / brown)
• 1-2 small ink pads (I find the Cat's Eye chalk pads to work well, but I would make sure they are wrapped in saran wrap or taped shut, since I found that my lids came off in travel)
• 1-2 small stamps to use as a tying element throughout your pages (I like using something that leaves space to journal in the middle)
• 1 set of small alphabet stamps (I like clear acrylic stamps since they're faster to work with and easier to pack)
• 1 sheet of vacation themed stickers - I chose a set of definition stickers
• some paper clips / binder clips
• small scissor
• tape / glue stick /stapler

Travel Journal Tips:

Some of these are my own, others are garnered from various scrapbook magazine articles about travel journals (Scrapbook Answers, Creating Keepsakes, Scrapbooks Etc)

• You can keep your travel itinerary in one of the pockets created by the manila envelopes
• Remember to take your travel journal with you, and write down your thoughts while you're waiting in line for an attraction, or on the train
• Try hand-drawing a map with tidbits about the journey written in, like thoughts about the ferry ride, the length of time it took to get from one place to another, etc
• Keep receipts from the trip that have logos on them - sometimes they're a fun way to add a little local flavor to your journal, especially the ones from local grocery stores, gas stations, etc
• Take multiple copies of the free maps you usually get from hotels - they're usually a lot less busy than tourism maps, so you can attach them to your journal and highlight the spots you visited
• Have a travel companion writen down their thoughts as well
• Try doing a list of events or things to remember to make journaling quicker
• You can save tickets, pamphlets, free postcards to make tabs to add throughout your journal (I didn't do this, but I think it's a great idea)
• Save those thin bags you get when buying postcards or other paper items. You can rip off the top and attach the bag to your journal page to create a pocket for postcards, pictures, or a journaling tag (ditto my last comment)
• Remember that you can use brochures for things such as cutting out dates, or tidbits of key information, so pick up extra copies

Mother's Day Mini Project

My neice has been bugging me to do some crafts with her, so today I thought that I would work on a Mother's Day mini book project with her. This is using the Maze Book technique that Tricia showed on CraftTVWeekly. This technique is amazing because it only use 1 12 X 12 sheet of paper and a bunch of scraps that you have lying around. A great way to use up those leftovers you've been keeping - I can't seem to throw any away, but most of the time, I don't use them.



We filled the inside pages with some pictures of Yuri, and then messages that she wrote herself about why she loves her mom. She really enjoyed this project - especially getting to use all my clear stamps & rubons.

May Design Team Submission for the Scrapper's Cove

This month we tested out the new Tres Jolie line of papers and coordinating die cuts from My Mind's Eye. Staying in theme with the season I chose to do a summer layout and some spring themed cards.



Ingredients:
Cardstock: Bazzill
Patterned paper: Tres Jolie by My Mind's Eye
Die Cuts: Tres Jolie / KaleidoQuote by My Mind's Eye
Prima flowers

This layout was inspired by a sketch in Scrapbooks Etc. Feb 2007 issue. I really like this double-sided patterned paper line by My Mind's Eye, but I personally prefer the distressed solid color side to the patterned sides. I tend not to use as much patterned paper throughout my layouts. But the distressing on the solid sides - I love the look this gives, and they chose really great colors like the aqua above and the pink in the cards below for this line of papers. This layout also features some space for hidden journaling on the green tag that can be pulled out on the left side of the picture collage



Ingredients:
Cardstock: Bazzill
Patterned paper: Tres Jolie by My Mind's Eye
Stamps: Clearly wordsworth
Die cut fonts: CK CardStarters
Bottlecap
Rubons by SEI
Prima flowers

This month I decided to do a set of cards for the second part of my submission. I wanted to experiment a bit with my new Silhouette, so I downloaded a font called CK Cardstarters from ScrapnFonts.com which basically is a Wingding font that has phrases like "Happy Mothers Day" in place of letters. This is nice because the the words look a lot more cohesive. The other thing that I experimented with this month was using flattened bottle caps. I've been looking at these in the magazines and wanting to give it a try, so I used my sizzix machine to flatten them and then painted with some white acrylic paint and adhered some prima flowers. I still need to get the hang of the technique of using these, so you'll probably see me experiment with them more in days to come.

Photo CD Project

This is an older project, but I just love the idea. I took a bunch of photos of Rob's niece (well, more like 1st cousin once removed? or is it second cousin...) during her first birthday party, and I wanted to send the CD over to his cousin. I thought this customized CD case would be a great little keepsake.

D.C. March 2007

Some photos from my recent trip to D.C. with Joan & Cindy ("the other Cindy")



The camera is good to us. =) I really like the collage feature in Picasa.
I'll be scrapping these eventually....eventually...

Design Team

Okay - so here is the big post that I should have posted a while back but was too lazy to. I was chosen to be a design team member for my local scrapbook store. It's a 6 month commitment and started in Feb of this year. I'm pretty excited about this first stint and I hope it leads to many more. I love the owners of the store and the products I get to try out.

For my first entry I was asked to create a layout that introduced myself and featured at least one large picture of me. That's pretty tough for me since most of the time, I don't really like myself in pictures - but you know what? Digital SLR's make a huge difference.



Deciding what to journal was the hardest part of this assignment. Since I wanted the body of the layout to say something about my personality, I decided to use the descriptions I found online of each of my zodiacs - the Scorpio and the Rooster. To fill in the space in the bottom of the second page, I chose to add a file folder containing more factual things about me and a premade die-cut to list some of my favorite things.

Ingredients:
Patterned paper by Rhonna Farrer
Cardstock by Bazzill
Ribbon
Chocolate/Sand Stick Outs 3D Stickers by Chatterbox
My Mind's Eye Full of Spunk Pack accessories card ("My Favorite Things")
Distress Ink Tattered Rose
Ribbon Glue
Sizzix File Folder Die

Fonts:
Title: QK Washington
Journaling: KleinSlabSerif
Rubons: CK Postcard

Martha Stewart Show Thoughts

I'm back from the taping, and I actually had quite a lot of fun although there was a lot of waiting time. I arrived at 12:15 and the actual taping itself didn't start until 2:30. That was okay though, we had yummy cookies for refreshment and I spent the time catching up with some of my Meetup buddies that I hadn't seen in months. We all brought along our scrapbooks since they were scanning some of them to be shown on the show, and browsing through everyone's work, I realized how talented everyone is. I wish that I could devote more time to scrapbooking so that I can really progress and take it to the next level.

My work actually got chosen for a closeup shot on the show - so look for me & it on May 7th. Personally, I didn't think that they chose my best pieces for the shot, but hey I'm on TV so I guess I can't complain. Here are the layouts they showed:

We also got some free stuff - which is of course welcome. Personally, my thoughts on MS's scrapbooking line is that it's too expensive, and a bit dull. But hey, I'm never one to turn down free stuff.

We got a leaf hole punch, a shadow box, and some nice journaling pens:

I'm actually really in love with the journaling pens - the colors and the fact that they are only 0.1 mm tips. If you know me, you'll know that I love love love fine tip pens. Plus they've got a really nice weight to them that makes my handwriting look prettier.

My only gripe with the show was that Martha was so obviously not a scrapbooking aficionado, not matter how much she protested that she was. She is not good with crafts, as has been shown on her show several times previously, but also - I cannot believe that she didn't take the time to learn, or someone on her staff didn't take the time to prep her on the lingo. She referred to cardstock as "construction paper", a hole punch as "paper cutting tool thing" and foam adhesive as "sponge like tape that makes your paper pop up". You would think that since they took the time to specifically invite scrapbookers to be the audience for this series of shows, that they would give the appropriate amount of attention to the craft itself.

Perhaps I'm being overly sensitive - but I can definitely see how her actions are going to end up alienating a lot of the current scrapbooking community and deter them from buying any of her products. But perhaps what they are counting on is drawing a bunch of new people to the craft who don't realize that.