Photoshopping in Hong Kong

This Memorial Day weekend was full of travel for our family. My younger brother got to join our dad in Hong Kong visiting our older brother and his family. My muse went to visit his parents and scout craft room relocations for yours truly in North Carolina, and even the girls and I enjoyed a day with my grandma and an overnight with theirs, followed by a day of play with friends at a local-ish swimming hole.

Being a big fan of travel via airplane, I couldn't help but to be a little bit jealous of my family who got to venture forth by air. So I channeled those feelings into a little app I like called PhotoGrid!

With a picture of my honey loving on our budding baby bump, two of my family hi-jinking around Hong Kong, and a few free downloaded sticker overlays, it looks like I saved myself about $1,000 of plane tickets and got a terrific family photo too!

Created on and then sent from my Verizon Wireless 4G LTE smartphone- a Note3

Bootlegged Besties Page

Making scrapbook pages for others has been a creative kick in the pants for me this year. From the pregnancy and newborn albums I assembled for my cousin, to the gift I'm sending overseas for my older brother next week, downloading other people's pictures from facebook and creating scrapbook layouts for them fills my heart with the same type of joy that committing my own family's memories does.

Since I never (ok, hardly ever) make two of anything the same, I've learned to enhance my satisfaction over creating for others by creating scrapbook pages without photos as part of the process. Not only does this leave room for additional photos I may not have on hand to be included, leaves room for the recipient to add their own journaling too, and sometimes invites some otherwise unconsidered cropping, but then I have a blank template to overlay my own digital images upon!

If you look closely at the background of this two page layout of my best friend and I at sleepover camp in April, you'll notice it is practically the same image, just rotated. In the picture on the left, I simply laid a piece of yellow-green polka-dotted paper that was nearby down on top of the grid background. I didn't have to use any adhesive! And it helped bring the photos I grouped digitally on top together harmoniously. The ink splatters I had adorned that single page with mimic the handholds on the climbing wall photos featured on the opposite side.
 Adding titles is a breeze, and mixing fonts in perfectly color matched hues is no problema- this one reads, "above all, relax reach & remain fearless." Good advice that is hard to follow once you step out of your comfort zone and start climbing a sheer wall of wood. I pushed myself to my limit and then gave into the cheering of my comrades as the shouted, "keep going! you can do it! don't give up yet!" Wow, that was like hearing my internal monologue in stereo lol. Although I was shaking, sweating and stammering, I did reach a little further and in a surging leap of faith upward, grasped the next hand hold successfully before repelling down to the graveled safety of the ground below.
Breathless, smiling with exhilaration, and warmed by the adventure and the friendly encouragement I'd received. Add the knowledge of a few photos taken for me to document the experience waiting for service to be sent, and I had all the makings for an inspiring rest of the day teaching others to play with paper and embrace their self-expressions.

The app I used was Photo Grid btw :-)

 

Season of Selling?

November is a time for gratitude, and I always feel that when I get to spend the day with my mom in a booth selling whatever we've made to shoppers in the mood to purchase handmade awesomeness.
We decided to take part in my local elementary school's first such event, and it was a truly enjoyable-albeit chilly- day in the gym.
The best part of the day, aside from being with my mom and sharing a delicious breakfast she packed for me, was when our good friend Becca stopped by. Not only did she exclaim as many other's did over my mom's super cute snowmen made from socks of all things, but she also bought a handful of pre-made scrapbook layouts I'd created.
Later that day, Becca really set my heart aglow when she texted me the completed layout- I love the picture she chose! You know, for some scrap bookers, only using one photo on a page can be a bit of a challenge, but I have grown to enjoy it because the photo really gets to take center stage this way.
This would be an easy page to recreate, or "scraplift" as I say; just take a 12x 12" piece of solid cardstock, this will be your base. Then take a 12x12" piece of patterned paper, and cut it down to 11.5x11.5." Next, you'll need either some striped patterned paper, like I've used here, or some border stickers, or some ribbons, and lay them to one side or the other, across the top, or down on the bottom- it's your layout! Add a photo mat, a title and a journaling box under a light sprinkling of embellishments, and you're set to scrapbook!
Here's another one of those layouts I'd made- this is actually just a photo! I have no physical version of this any longer, but I was still able to use it for a photo of a Pampered Chef party I hosted as a fundraiser for our preschool. How? Through the magic of a favorite (free!) app I have installed, called Photo Grid! I opened up the photo, added text and the photo, and bata-bing-botta-boom: Insta-sta-scrap!
Let this be a reminder to you that it can pay to take photos as you go, before you actually add the photos, haha. You could use a few pages to create a whole album of template scrapbooking, right on your phone, and then send it off to a photo book service for additional cool points :-)

App Happy

Well friends, Christmas has come and gone in what seemed like a flurry of preparations, sparkley lights, gift wrap and holiday outings. What's left is really fabulous: lot's of beautiful memories, telling photos, and well, gift wrappings. Oh, let's not forget the tunes still being joyously caroled about, and those Christmas cards!

This weekend I managed to devote some time to cleaning up my current albums. Current, meaning, these are the albums I'm currently still filling in with printed pictures and pretty papers. I always have two albums going; my most recently semi completed, and one that is current to the actual date and season.  There are lot's of unfinished pages in albums I started prior to the beginning of fall, but these two are the one's I'm focusing my attention on. This week at least :-)
So what does album clean up look like? Alas, I have no video, but I couldn't promise that if there were one, it would be very entertaining! Basically, I start with a stack of photos. Strike that, first I thumb through my album and try to put myself back in time a few months to remember the feeling of those days and some of the stories I'd intended to tell.
I've been hoarding our children's artwork as long as they've been making it and have started including some choice pieces within our family albums in clear plastic sleeves. There are gingerbread men drawings from school, fall leave wreaths, and then for our most recent pages, colored reindeer, snowmen, and holly berry clusters.  Slipping those in, where they seem to fit, ended up being a big part of what I accomplished too.
 With my photo stack, I go through the pages already created and slip extras in behind completed layouts. I can always add pages later, but I will not allow unused photos to hold me back (or taunt me by being on show). If there are empty spaces, I look for a large paper background that fits the feel of the photos, and put that in the sleeve too. Sometimes, I even go looking for the memorabilia I know I have lying around...somewhere.... okay, I'll go back for that later too.
There are times when I find I have all the necessary items for a page within an album sleeve. And so I stick it all together and call it done! And it doesn't always look "perfect"- so I turn the page and move on! Cause I'm in production mode, people! My glue is flexible, too if I need to go back and revisit that mess.
I was having such a good time scrappin, I hardly noticed that my few hours were up, and when I showed honey what I'd been up to, he commented, you did all that? Just now? and gave me the look... the one that says both, How did I get such a talented woman to document our lives, and How did you just spend 3 hours playing with paper? I had jazzed up 5 pocket page spreads, finished/completed 3 12x12 single pages, and even created three more from thin air. Thin air being comprised of tiny plant fibers. I used supplies I'd obtained at the Creating Keepsakes Convention last month. I didn't overthink or over embellish because I didn't want to travel the 25 feet to my craft room haha.
Best of all, I was having a really good time... like, unwrapping Christmas presents good time. Oh who am I kidding, it was like the WRAPPING presents time- I love the thrill of anticipating, what will they think of this?! so much more than, oh, that didn't go over well.
When my album is looking finished (to the untrained eye), I look for any more of those empty sleeve spaces. Our books almost always start right in with photos as opposed to a title page of any sort, but there are a few that have one, and this fall album I worked on ended up with a fun opening page. It's so simple, and lovely, and a great reminder, that all those things I have in the craft room do not have to go onto one page. There is one sheet of 12x12, one sheet cut down to 5x12, and a chipboard title that reads, Celebrate Together and a matching chipboard banner in the corner.


Some simple photo editing
courtesy of my Samsung Note3

 I love the way it looks so much, I went a little app-happy and filtered it to this sepia image. Now this pretty background has an extended viewing platform: my phone's lock screen! Next time you have a page you love and want to show it off, upload it as you facebook cover image- you may have to play a little bit to get your details on show, but any play is good play when its a scrappy -appy- day!
Now I want to know, friends, how do you transition from the happy holidays to the New Year and all the promise of that date change? Are there photos involved? Pretty papers (please say some sparkle)? Would you rather pull the blanket over your head an hibernate until the flowers bloom? I want to know, comment below~
Cheers!
Anna

Last Minute Examples

This week I was invited to teach at our local Youth Center, Key Center's Red Barn on the Key Peninsula. This building came about as the result of a lot of hard work and community support. Out here in the boonies, there isn't a lot for a young kid to do other than get in trouble- or at least that's the way it seemed for my friends and I during those formative years.

At the Red Bard, kids from middle school through high school can come to get homework assistance during the school year, as well as hang with their buddies playing foosball, table tennis, pool, or just sitting on a cool bar stool waiting to watch the cooking show in the kitchen. During the summer, the director, Laura, has partnered with the Two Waters Art Alliance to bring art classes in on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Civic Shade Seekers

Enter Teacher Anna (and her capable assistants, Rainie and Sunny). Being a teacher of papercrafts can be so rewarding, and I was fortunate to impact other children in our area during the school year teaching at our library for the homeschooled group out here. What is so rewarding for me is that I am guiding the kids towards capturing their stories, whether its through collage, a home for their family pictures and legends, or even by exposing them to that old fashioned way of writing, snail mail.

My completed Summer Home Page

After a quick trip to the supply cabinet housed in the Civic Center, my girls and I enjoyed a picnic lunch outside on the playground. Well, they enjoyed lunch, and I put together my sample for the class I'd be teaching, My Personal Homepage Scrapbooking. Basically, this is a scrapbook style page of any size which represents where you are Right Now. Are you loving summer? Dealing with ongoing personal issues? Missing your friends or family? There are apps for that! No, really, there are lol. In this class I asked the kids (and you of course, can ask yourself), what are you loving right now. Like, what are you really in to?
After compiling a list of ideas, words that summarized what we love, we thought of icons that could represent those ideas, and searched for representations amongst the magazines, newspapers, and a donated stash of summer fun from my friends at Queen & Co. The kids had fun searching for pictures that "spoke to them."


If you search for them, images will appear...

 

We then thought a little more about the design of our home page. For instance, when you look at your Google app on your smartphone, you don't just see a link to open your browser for searching, there are often other icons included under that heading, such as your GMail, YouTube, and Google+. We did the same thing, for a subject like Sports, we would include all things sports. How did we do this? With my favorite element of fun- the FlipFlap! Take an element, add some more awesome Queen & Co. tape, and voila! You have an interactive element to contain more information/pictures/journaling on your page.

One of my students even thought of branding his page and elements with the first initial of his name: I. I love that he let his sister add her art beneath his hidden flip flap at the top left.
 

Jade and Olivia are in the middle of crafting up a storm

I also love that each student created a page that was uniquely their own- exactly the purpose of the class :-)

 One of the goals was also to allow them to decide which size project they wanted to create. I personally wondered about this because even when I attempt to create 8.5x11 inch pages for my albums, I usually end up backing that completed page with a sheet of 12x12... don't know why, but I'm working on it! WELL, the outcome was that 3 out of 4 kids decided to go with the standard, suggested size of the full sheet as a background. But then there was that ONE who decided not to. The funny part was that this young lady was probably the most experienced scrapbooker in the room- or at least she, like many of us, had all the supplies she'd ever need and had not used most of them. I know, I know, they will be used someday, right? Her example was very detailed and included some trendy items I picked up on discount from Michael's a month ago. Her page measured approximately the same size as my Samsung Note3-  Tres Chic!
Interested in attempting a project like this? Go for it! Think about your background picture/ home screen. The subjects you spend the most time with would perhaps be the largest icons. Under those icons you may have additional images to represent the deeper meaning. You may decided on fonts that represent your style, or convey the feel of your subjects. Its a fun way to explore yourself from a topical standpoint.
I hope you enjoyed this project share! I'll be back at the Barn next week to teach some awesome cardmaking to the youth who arrive, so watch for that post, and if you are at all inclined to want to help an incredible organization that serves our community's youth, consider volunteering your time (or funds) in that direction. More information can be found online at http://www.redbarnkp.org/

 

Perks of Cruising Alone

Considering tonight's entertainment options...

Did you know another bonus of vacationing on a cruise ship is that you'll get some dance lessons thrown in?  Yes, dancing! And not having anyone to not want to go with me along, I made sure to include a few in my stay on board. Salsa dancing lessons are the menu for tonight to be exact. A celebratory drink of the day at dinner is followed by a refreshingly sweet Disaronno on the rocks in the Star Lounge while I watch all the couples already on the dance floor one, and two, sal-sa-step out of sync. Already regretting my shyness at not having roped some willing mens into accompanying me to this event, I had to admit to that there was not a single available man to dance with. Not that there weren't men in the room not already dancing. No, these unmatched were simply unwilling. I guess I can just finish my drink and go back down to the crop room... 
Ha! Years of every imaginable type of dance instruction have taught me three things: I have rhythm (through the powers imagination usually), I have no junk in the trunk to pop, but above all, that I can dance with ANYONE, male or female. So, like the dance floor predator I'd encounter later that night, I swam up to a nice woman dancing in place next to her (unwilling) husband. Laughing, she agreed to let me lead- and then led me through the steps! We had a great time giggling, yelling Volley! every time we danced more than a four count of steps. Finally she was determined to refresh her husbands memory of the lessons he'd taken on their previous cruise, and I moved on to a sweet older gal whose partner had just thrown his hands up in despair- and then tried to pass her off to his friend who loudly protested he didn't want to dance.
It was obvious that she was not used to leading the dance, or maybe it was just too overwhelming when I kept shouting, "We're improvising!" because she quickly begged off and I went back to slurping down my liquid encouragement. I found my next partner near the bar-go figure- and wow, did she ever have the moves! Now it was my turn to stumble gracelessly while she twirled about me like a Spanish gypsy, complete with flaring and fluffing of her skirt, trills, and a lot of hair tossing.  I was almost relieved that the show I planned to see was about to start and I could beg out and quick step up the stairs.

Anyone willing to make a complete fool of yourself, please, step forward.

Liquid Encouragement

D and I had discussed the Newlywed Game as being one of my must-see highlights of the trip, so I found a seat near the entrance and kept an eye on the door for her, all the while chatting with a sweet gal whose husband had passed away many years prior to this vacation. We laughed loudly (okay, maybe I was a lot louder laughing) as the contestants were chosen from the audience. First, the couple who had been married the longest. I think it was like, 69 years or something?! Then the couple who had been married the shortest time, and then a contest between the applicants for the average couple. The audience was invited to show, by strength of applause, which couple could demonstrate the best "Tarzan yell followed by a kiss for Jane."
Oh. my. gawsh. Have you ever seen a rotund, hairy chested man with shirt half way unbuttoned take his wife to the floor with passion in front of a large crowd? We're talking a fill-the-Theatre sized crowd. Wow. What a surprise that it was the best dressed couple sporting the most sex appeal who ended up on the middle sofa. An even bigger surprise lay in wait as they blazed a matrimonial trail of knowledge for one another over their competition! It was a cute show and sharing laughs with that gal made it even more enjoyable. A perfect way to end the evening... but wait, there's more! Come back tomorrow and close the club with me and my solo cup of Disaronno .

JYC 2014 Album Prep Payout

The stars at night...
my Artsy Super Star, Radient Rainie!

This year I signed up for Shimelle.com's Journal Your Christmas class. The daily prompts allowed me to explore Christmas memories throughout the season and also provided some really intriguing photo-taking challenges.
 I figured early in the month that I'd be doing a lot of writing, but more than that, I'd be doing a lot of Christmas card making. Which I did! Well, not so much the writing, but definitely a lot of cards were made and sold which was really invigorating for me. Every day there was also a short video showing a 3x4 card being dressed up for the season, and I enjoyed watching and using the ideas on a few of those cards I made, as well as in creating little mini masterpieces with the girls.

I knew in the past that it has taken almost an entire album to contain just the one month of December's scrap worthy photos, so early in the process I chose an album and then after about five-ten prompts I added patterned papers, project life cards, and embellishments that fit the seasonal theme. I figured it would be easy to maintain a consistent theme throughout the entire album with this base to build on, plus I just like to build kits without pictures for a challenge occasionally. I used the prefilled sleeves that came with the album, added pocket pages as well, and kept everything for the season's recordings in there, adding mementos as they came across my desk.

Now, the title of the class does include the word Journal, which has never been something I've really enjoyed doing in my albums- I'm more of a record happenings daily on a calendar person than a record feelings type of person. So while I thought a lot about the ideas presented, what I ended up doing was more about talking to other people, sharing my own traditions and anecdotes, while learning more about my friends and family through their own story telling.

Photo Prompt: Through the Window

Some of my favorites; Hearing about the little boy who got a bike but didn't know it until he was completely disappointed about not having found one under the tree (it was in the backyard)! The little girl who was shocked to receive a paint by number set from her parents (she thought they were oblivious to her artful inclinations). My friend whose dad took her and her sister to get their ears pierced on a whim while their mom shopped the other side of the mall. Sharing my own story of being up on stage in preschool and being so mesmerized by my granddads shiny bald head glowing under the lights that I forgot to follow my classmates into the wings!

Photo Prompt: Add Sparkle

So, not having written most of the storytelling down as it came my way, how HAS my album benefit from this class? Well, for one thing, I've been able to take some really cool pictures throughout the month that I may not have thought to try otherwise, like this amazing picture of my mom and Sunday in a restaurant before dinner. Tried out a few new apps and created really cool effects on otherwise terrifically seasonal photos. I'm thinking more about stories that I've told over the years and how they all impact how I enjoy the sights and sounds and the whirl of Christmas cardmaking around this time of year... and the awesome bonus is that I'll have access to this class for many years to come and can continue to visit the prompts and tell those stories that make the background for my families traditions.

Thanks for joining me today, I wish you and your family all the best of the Holiday season, and the best hopes for a happy, healthy, scrappy New Year!