Save the date

Come play at One Story Down on April 1! There are a lot of funtivties planned for the grand opening!!!

May the odds be ever in your favor

I went to see the Hunger Games yesterday, and I think it was a pretty good adaptation of the story. Maybe it's because I've listened to these books over and over and know the story so well, but I just wasn't that excited watching it or didn't feel as much emotion for some scenes - except for maybe the reaping at the very beginning. I wanted to love this movie a lot more.

One of my favorite things was seeing the behind-the-scenes stuff of the games - Seneca Crane plotting with President Snow or working in the operating room - or even just people back in District 12 watching the show - or the commentators explaining tracker jackers.

My sister, who has never read the books, didn't understand why Katniss would help Peeta and didn't get the scene with the bread. I don't think his character was developed so well. Randi's already on Team Gale. (Shaking my head!) I think Katniss's relationship with Rue was kind of lacking, too. I also wish Haymitch was drunker!

But that said, Jennifer Lawrence was pretty kick ass. And Elizabeth Banks was awesomely hilarious as Effie.    Stanley Tucci and Donald Sutherland were also excellently cast.

The movie seemed a lot less violent than the book. Scenes like the bloodbath at the cornucopia all happened so quickly - so I think they were less haunting - but that's not a bad thing. The books are so dark and disturbing!

There were some amazing details in the visuals. I loved how the film showed the contrast between the poor districts and the extravagance of the Capitol. The dark, dreariness of District 12. Everything was covered in coal. The scene in District 11 - love that they showed this - reminded me of the 60s race riots. And then there was the sleek design of the Capitol - in everything from Seneca Crane's beard to those awesome chairs in the District 12 quarters. Effie's wardrobe alone was insane!

I think I like this film more when I've seen with a little distance. It's like the Harry Potter movies - when I see them in the movies, I feel disappointed, but then love them after seeing them a million times on ABC family because the books aren't so fresh in my mind. I think the story was in good hands.

And now I'm dying to see how they cast the Quarter Quell. I should skip re-reading Catching Fire!

"No flash cartography"

Today, the family was over for another round of corned beef and cabbage dinner. Now that everyone is gone, I realized I missed some good photo ops.

• Playing Angry Birds  (the IRL game - not the iphone version) with the girls 
• Derek cowering from the dogs 
• the girls showing us their talent show dance routine 
• the yummy desserts mom and grandma made 
• the actual dinner, which is new for me because I only just discovered that I like corned beef
• Rocky stealing a piece of dessert
• Kylie missing her two front teeth
• Taylor reading a Vampire book
• Derek hugging Great-Grandma

But I didn't even take out the cameras today. And I'm glad I didn't. I sometimes feel like I'm removed from the fun because I'm watching through the lens or looking for good shots. We don't all get together like this very often. If I want to scrap about it, I can always do a page without photos.

Kylie was using her iTouch to take pictures of the dogs - and that just made me so proud. I teased her using her line from Disney World - "No flash cartography." At Disney, any time we were at a show, you'd hear an announcement -  "No flash photography" - and Kylie didn't quite interpret that right. So when she'd get tired of me playing paparazzi, she'd say "no flash cartography." That kid cracks me up!!!  It was definetly a no flash cartography kind of day.

I did take one picture, using my iPhone. Penny looks beat after all the company left!

******

So while I didn't take many photos this week, I played with lots of them! 

 These are some of the photos I took in December 2010. I have had this title in mind for this page since then. I put two two-page templates together and after I got all these photos on here, I realized I didn't leave much room for anything, so I just gave it a little title. I love my friends. We had the best time that month. I hate that I don't get to see some of them much anymore. Credits: Project 52 template from Jen Wilson Designs, Micheline Martin's Chirpy Solids, December word from Lili Designs.

 These are some pics from St. Patrick's Day this year. I didn't take out my camera much this year either - see reasons above! - and I just stole some pics from my friend Oscar on facebook. Credits: Kaye Winieki's Shamrocking from Lily Pad (I broke down my ban on digi shopping for just this kit because I needed it!!!). Inspired by the One Story Down Girl Vs. Scrap challenge for March.

And here's one of my first pages as part of the One Story Down team for the Designer Spotlight on Pink Reptile Designs. These pictures are from the Bronx Zoo last summer. I am in love with that butterfly background - and I am easily sold on a kit like this that has all my favorite colors and things - owls, sunflowers, buttons. Yummy stuff. Credits: Pink Reptile Designs' Happy Day papers and elements and Dark Wood Brad Alpha from Zig Zag Scraps.

Wise words...

Courtesy of a Magic Hat Circus Boy. ....

One Story Down

I have been following the blog and playing along with the challenges at One Story Down the past few months. Lauren Reid is expand the site with a store and forum and guess who's going to be on the site team! 

I've been having a lot of fun hanging out in the forum there! The ladies are very chatty and everyone's pretty excited. And I'm also so thrilled because my pal Tania is on the team, too! There's going to be a very big grand opening very soon and we are going to have a blast.

Reorganizing

After almost 8 years of scrapbooking, it is sad to think that most of my scrapbook pages live on my computer. I really need to do something about that! Some of my pages have been printed as books - but I don't always make copies of the books that I give as gifts. The pages I have printed are arranged pretty haphazardly in albums, but I am a few years behind in printing, and since I don't really scrap chronologically, it's hard to get them in order. I have been happy with smaller themed albums that I have put together recently - Christmas albums, my Comic Con book and Grandma's birthday pages.

So I think I want to buy a few three-ring binders, designate them by topics and start filling them up. I might even want to take out the pages I have in 8x8 books - they don't even hold that many pages - and redo them this way. I found some really cute books that hold about 75 page sleeves! Here's one from We R Memory Keepers. I love it!

I've heard of this kind of strategy in magazines and blogs and it really seems to make so much sense. I can organize books by years and ad pages when I scrap them out of order. I want to do a heritage book, all about me, an art journal album, and then books by year. I don't have to do it all at once, but I really like having a strategy. I have created so many pages - I want to make it easy to look at them and remember those stories! 

Don't hate on your old pages!

I love looking through my old scrapbook pages - no matter how old they are. I don't care if the elements look wonky or the shadows are weird. To me, it's about the photos and stories.I have been doing this long enough to see lots of trends come and go, and to me the pages that stand the test of time are the ones that tell stories. I don't want to scrap like the cool kids.

I have been thinking about this a lot after seeing a forum post where people shared their first pages. Everyone hates on their old pages. Maybe that's not your style any more. Maybe you were just learning to use your software. Maybe you never heard of design principles or journaling. It doesn't matter. The learning is part of the story, too.

So maybe you haven't been on some sort of gallery standouts blog. Who cares??? My grandma wouldn't know how to find those sites. But her face lights up when she sees my scrapbooks and that is awesome. I say know your audience. Don't try to impress your friends from the forums!

This is the first page I ever posted and I still love it. Love this photo of Rock - taken with my first digital camera. I think it held 20 pictures! I used freebies made by Holly McCaig back in the day. I think some of the shadows look ok and the jouranling tells about my buddy. It wins by my standards! And even after all these years, Holly is one of my bffs. Learning to digi scrap and making friends along the way became part of the story!

This one also features some freebies, some curling action and crazy fonts. When I started scrapping it was all about downloading freebies, hoarding fonts and learning how to make things in Photoshop. So while it may not be that pretty, look at the handsome guy! I love these photos of Rocky. I scanned most of my pics back then. I'm sure I could do better now, but it's like looking at a story I wrote when I was a kid. I'm sentimental like that!

And how about this beaut??? It sure is crazy looking, but this one was all about learning. I made it all myself. All those wacky shapes were made with brushes and bevels. I was probably chatting with some of the ladies from SBB - Nancy, Raechel, Dani, Helen - while I was working on it! We would stay up all night in the chat room or on messengers and share new things we learned. This page makes me teary - not because it's crazy looking, but because Taylor was sooooooo little! It's been so long since she was this little baby!

So that brings me to another kind of page...

It's simple. Composed nicely enough. Interesting shot. Trendy elements. I did this one for a challenge at RAKScraps several years ago. And while it's pretty, if I had to make room on my hard drive I'd get rid of this one before the pages above. Because it doesn't mean anything!!! While it at least has a date to place it, it tells me nothing about how Kylie was being silly and coming right up to my camera while I was trying to take pictures of her. I remember that because I have a really sick memory for this stuff - but I may not always be around to tell that story. I would remake this page and add some journaling about this crazy little girl.

Tell your stories and you will love your pages!

Goofing off

I wanted to scrap or attempt to do something productive, but instead I've been goofing off in some forums, checking Pinterest and playing Draw Something. So I guess I'll just share my latest pages instead while I watch Cougar Town. (Penny Can!!!)

 Some photos from Festival of Lion King at Disney. These photos were terrible but the show was so much fun! So I do what we do at work when the art isn't so great. BIG TYPE! Credits: Emily Merritt's L is for Lion from the Lily Pad

I am determined to catch up on some Easter scrapping, so I pulled up these photos from a few years ago for Lilypad's scraplift challenge. Credits: Kim Jensen's Bloomin' Egg-cellent flowers, Emily Merrit's Teeny Pattern Papers 2, Emily Merritt & Tiff Brady's Doodle Frames and CD Mucksosky's Splattered alpha - all from Lily Pad.

 I did a page called Rocky Raccoon featuring Rocky a few years ago so I've wanted to make this page pretty much since I got my dog! Credits: Micheline Martin's The It Girl and March challenge template by Amy Martin - all from Lily Pad.

And I think I am now all caught up on the kids' birthdays! Good thing because Taylor is almost 9! Credits: Zoey by Amy Wolff at the Lily Pad.

 Credits: Love & Grace Collab from Lily Pad - elements & papers by Amy Wolff, Jenna Desai, Rachel Young, Allison Pennington, Kaye Winieki, Valorie Wibbens, Meghan Mullens, Lauren Grier, The Hidden Heart; CD Mucksosky's Teeny Type Too from Lily Pad

And here's one to mark Leap Day.... Credits: Hoppy Birthday collab by the designers at The Lily Pad

If you can tell from my credits, I am a  bit time Lily Pad stalker! I am taking a break from digi shopping because I really need to save money and it is killing me! But at least I am lucky enough to "work" for some very talented designers and I have a very exciting guest gig for April and a new team as well!

BTW.... if you like Kim Jensen Designs, you should like Kim's Facebook page!

Craftapalooza!

The only thing I like better than scrapbooking is getting crafty with my friends! My dear friend Melissa invited me - along with Tina & Krista - to her house on Saturday for some girl time! Not only did we get to hang out and laugh, but they fed me well! And I like hanging out with Melissa's family, too. Her daughter is a prodigy on the sewing machine and taught me all about Laloopsy dolls.

I mostly worked on my Smashbook and finished up the cover for my grandma's birthday party album. I got to play with Tina's Slice, which was pretty cool!

I just took a photo of this and Penny posed when she saw my camera LOL!

Here you can see my Sliced 80 and my little banner with rub on stitching.

I cut out some magazine picture of Bruce Springsteen for a page spread in progress. Gracie made me laugh saying she didn't think he was good looking! Hee! (I just got his new album Wrecking Ball - pretty good stuff!) Here's some more smashy stuff.

I'm not really artsy or a paper scrapper, but I do like to buy cute and useless stuff. So my smash book has turned into a place where I can play with Muppet band aids and owl stickers! I think my Kermit page turned out pretty awesome! Melissa and our friend Patti also got Smash books so we're having fun working (or not working) on them. I still want to do some more work on these last two pages.

I barely touched my laptop while I was at Melissa's. I made a little progress on a digi page, but that's ok! We had so much fun just hanging out!

I can't draw!

It's pretty sad. I design newspaper pages for a living. And I consider myself a creative person. So here's what I came up with when I had to draw "news" while playing Draw Something.

I am amazed that any of my friends can guess what my pictures are! I apologize for my lack of skillz and thank you for playing with me!

My favorite doctors!

I just love these images celebrating two of my favorite doctors - Doctor Who and Doctor Seuss! Found them on the Doctor Who Official Tumbler. 

The Lorax and other tales

"I am the Lorax. I speak for the trees!"

We just took the girls, along with my sister-in-law and Derek, to see the Lorax and it was super cute. Such a great message, too. I thought Ed Helms and Danny Devito were pretty funny and gave the classic characters great new personalities. And the Seuss-y style of everything from the the forest and city was just so cool. Kylie was dancing along with the songs. Derek spent most of the movie running up and down the aisle. 

In honor of Dr. Seuss Day, the Lily Pad designers created a bunch of Seuss-inspired kits. I scrapped this page (and had a lot of fun with my pen tool) featuring Taylor reading Green Eggs in Ham. Taylor has since become quite the reader and that just makes me so proud!

Credits: Here to There by Emily Merritt and Jacque Larsen from the Lily Pad.

I put myself on a digi spending freeze this month so it is not fair that there are so many cute Dr. Seuss kits and BOYC pieces to buy this month! I am limiting myself to CT things and trying to use stuff already in my enormous stash of digi goodies. Thank goodness for Amy and Emily! Here are some of my new pages.

These are photos from my family's Mother's Day celebration at our house last year. My cousin Melissa and I took a bunch of random shots while we were sitting around the table in the yard. One of my favorites is a picture of Penny that looks like she's smiling!  Credits: Emily Merrit's Tiny Pattern Paper Vol 2 and Doodle Frame Cards with Tiff Brady from the Lily Pad; Flowers by Emily Merritt from Love & Grace Collab at Lily Pad 

And I'm still trying to finish up an album about all of my adventures last summer. I am so behind on that one but I hope to get it done before a new summer starts. Amy's BOYC papers are called Greenwich Village and that inspired me to do an NYC page.This page is about the day before my birthday when I went to see the Alexander McQueen exhibit at the Met, almost passed out, and found some fun things in Central Park. I am so glad I blogged about it because I was able to cut and paste all the text right on to my page! 

Credits: Amy Wolff's Greenwich Village papers and Date Cut Outs from Lily Pad. Stamped alphas by Dani Mogstad