UVA Football

Go Wahoos! The family and I came to Charlottesville for the weekend - my grad school program organized a block of seats. We're playing Duke, so have a good chance of winning. Anyway, it should be a great opportunity for good photos - Charlottesville is a lovely place in the Blue Ridge foothills - then, there's all that TJ (Thomas Jefferson) stuff everywhere. We are hoping to stop off at Veramar vineyards on the way home. They're having an Elvis-themed party on Sunday afternoon. Cheers!

More Digi

I signed up for the Big Picture Scrapbooking class - our first assignment was to make a title page and our first page - the topic of our little 6x6 album is our journey into digital scrapbooking. Here's what I made for the first lesson. I ended up using a combination of Photoshop and Photoshop Elements.

Gig 'em Aggies! (we won our first game!)

Digital Scrapbooking

I've started playing around with some of the many digital components that are out there. The sites that I'm enjoying the most are Shabby Princess (http://www.shabbyprincess.com/) and ScrapGirls (http://www.scrapgirls.com/). Scrapgirls sends out a daily email with a freebie in each one. They have tons of stuff available to buy and put it all on sale from time to time. The kits are great -- you can get stuff that is coordinated which eases the getting started stress. Shabby Princess also has some free stuff - they post new complete sets every so often - really nice looking stuff. You can also buy kits there - they have a nice pre-coordinated album - a great way to do your first digital album. Both sites offer tutorials, and Scrapgirls has some classes. By the way, I noticed that Big Picture Scrapbooking (http://bigpicturescrapbooking.com/) is offering a Digital Scrapbooking class that spans the month of September. The class uses Photoshop Elements (which you can trial for 30 days).

I just got Photoshop CS3 (it came with my upgrade of Dreamweaver) - I've been using Paint Shop Pro for several years, but am just starting to explore what I can so with PS.

OK - I've been lazy and not posted anything! Well, I will post pictures of the Australia album within the next week. But, while I haven't posted, I have been busy. I made a bunch of cards which can be purchased at the Reston Conservatory Ballet. I also went to the AT&T National Golf Tournament (Tiger's Tournament) in Bethesda, MD. We were able to take a bunch of pictures on Pro-Am Day and I scrapped those into an EDS (Everyday Stories) Album last week. Since it was so green, I used the Piggy Tales Snow White Paper (think green and purple) - we cut out titles with the Wishblade as well as augmenting with some digital scrapbook elements. Then, yesterday, my sister and I teamed up to hold a card making party - I had fun -- hope our participants did too! I guess I'll post pics of the cards shortly as well -- probably on the website (http://www.jjcweb.net)

Card Crazy

I mentioned in the previous post about getting sidetracked - well, that was due to getting into a card making frenzy. I didn't confine myself to any single technique - PCS (personal cutting system) machine; digital photo/scrapping techniques, color blocking, stamping, you name it!

Everyday Stories - Pictures

I got sidetracked from creating my Australia Trip album - but more on that later! Using the Everyday Stories (EDS) system, I:

• went thru the photos, sorted and grouped them
• slotted the pictures into various page configurations
• added paper (used Piggy Tales Red Riding Hood, Bazzill Basics, and Stampin' Up)
• did some computer research on the locales (it has been 20 years!)
• created some titles w/ the Wishblade

and here are a few of the results - I apologize for the quality of the photos - clearly, I'll have to redo some of these.

Picture 1 - the Big Merino - we found this while driving from Sydney to Canberra -- complete with a wool museum and shop.

Picture 2 - The Sydney Opera House - need I say more?

Picture 3 - Barrier Reef.

DC Tidal Basin - April 3

It's a good thing we went down to DC last Tuesday, because we got a cold front the next day! We were extremely lucky to see the cherry blossoms at peak. There will be some scrapbook pages coming from this trip - and some of my photos will decorate cards and even scrapbook paper!

Australia Album - Getting Started

So, I removed the trip photos from the old album - the poinciana trees were just as incredibly beautiful as I remembered!

The first step is to group and sort the photos in whatever way works for you. For me, I stuck with the same basic sequence as from the old album. But, it turns out that I didn't label any it it. So, some research was required. I added some slips of paper into my stack to identify where these places were. I also did some internet searches to help "jog" my memory. (More on this later!)

The next step is to pop the photos into their placeholders in the page protectors. I chose to use various layouts. The 12 x 12 page protectors come in 5 different layouts (you can get a whole pack of one layout, or a multi-pack that has all the layouts). I usually start with the multi-pack and then venture into the others!

More later!

Protect your photos!

I got into this "scrapbooking" thing last spring when I realized that some of my older photo prints were starting to look old! My sister (a Stampin' Up consultant) -- who had been telling me to deal with it for a while -- finally made me attend one of her classes. Anyway, that was the beginning of the end. Now, I can't get enough. I started off by taking my pictures out of the old yukky albums, and redoing them in an archival-safe way -- this means not to use that sticky-back stuff, put the photos next to acid-free and lignin-free products -- use archival-safe pens -- and so on. I started off by scrapbooking a trip I made around Europe back in 1993. We were living there and I took off on a 2 week trip around Austria and Bavaria. Mostly, I matted my photos and stuck them in a Creative Memories scrapbook that I got on eBay.

My new project (which you will hear more about), is to use the Everyday Stories system (EDS) that IRW developed for a trip to Australia back in 1988. I was looking through the old photo album, and it raised some fun (although faint) memories.

Here's what you need to get started:

• Page protectors in varied configurations (see EDS catalog at http://www.jjcweb.net/catalogs.html for layouts)
• Pictures (I have about 200)
• Acid-free, lignin-free Cardstock
• Adhesive (I like the Xyron

Later on, you'll also want an album to put them in (I usually start with this, too, so that I can manage the page protectors more easily) and some embellishments. The beauty of the EDS system is that you can use as few or as many embellishments as you like!

One last thing! Backup your digital photos!

My New Tshirt

Small Gift Bag Project

We made this little gift bag during the IRW convention in early March. It's quick to make and looks good too! It was designed by Chrstina Klauer of IRW.

Supplies:

1 sheet 12x12 cardstock (reversible)
1 flower
1 brad
34" ribbon

1. Cut the paper into 2 pieces, sized at: (a) 8.5 x 11 (b) 3.5 x 11
2. Score paper (a) 1 1/4" vertically
3. Score paper (a) 4 1/2" from each end horizontally
4. Score paper (b) 4 1/2" from each end
5. Fold and cut in at 4 1/2" score marks to the 1 1/4" line to create flaps
6. Place patterned paper in center of bag and adhere (align scores)
7. Adhere sides of bag together
8. Cut ribbon into 2 17" lengths
9. Attach ribbon to bag using adhesive; Repeat on other side
10. Add flower with brad (you may want to place a hole in the bag first!)

Have Fun! I plan to make alot of these for all the earrings that I make!

Birthday Quilt

My Mom made this gorgeous quilt for me for my birthday - it rocks! Isn't she awesome?

Savannah

My sister Nancy and I met in Savannah for the first ever IRW Convention. We arrived Wednesday, toured around on Thursday, and met with the IRW crowd on Thursday night. We created, talked, walked, and much more over the next 3 days. On Sunday, we had to head home.

Nancy and I began with IRW last fall - so we're new. It was very exciting to be around 100 women who are "mad" about scrapbooking. We made several really cool pages, using Xyron, Fiskars, and Bazzill products -- and, we learned about the company's history.

And, Savannah is a beautiful city; especially in early March.

The Daily Crop

Well, many people are blogging about many things. I decided to give it a try so that I could figure out what blogs are all about, and dump thoughts focused on scrapbooking, cardmaking, and jewelry-making. So, here goes! Check back from time to time, maybe you'll get some project ideas or just laugh!

Digital Scrapbooking

I recently learned how to use "brushes" in Paint Shop Pro. These were described to me by my sister Lynn, as rubber stamps for the computer. It turns out that there are many brushes out there on the web. Some are free; some can be purchased from sites such as Scrap Girls (http://www.scrapgirls.com) And, I found some nice free ones at Bunny's Attic (http://www.bunnysattic.com). You can adjust the settings to control the color and angle, plus many other things. I've been using them to decorate the backgrounds of titles on various scrapbook pages.