The Way I See Things

I LOVE BEING A SCRAPTOGRAPHER!

What exactly is a scraptographer?  It is a scrapbooker who is also passionate about the art of photography.  I (and about 400 others from across the country) attended a wonderful event this weekend called CPR:  Creative Photography Retreat.  The event was put together by Creating Keepsakes magazine and Canon was the lead sponsor.  It was incredible.  I knew I loved taking photos but now I'm totally hooked!  let's just say that the holiday wish list grew a lot this weekend! 

My friend Jenn R. met me there and together we met Marish, Jackie and Kelly and formed a team for the photo scavanger hunt.  It was great making friends with people who love my hobbies as passionately as I do!

I attended 9 photography classes and learned about lighting, settings, portraits, and even macro photography.  I also attended 3 classes on Adobe Photoshop Elements and digital scrapbooking which was eye-opening!  The give-aways were great.  Scrapbooking supplies, digi supplies, and even reading material to keep me busy until the end of the year.

This was an incredible event and I hope they have another retreat again soon!  Below are some of the photos I took at the retreat.

First are some shots taken in my macro class:

 

 

 

Next are a few digitally manipulated photos done in Elements.  They started out as regular color photos that were in the sample folder of my laptop.

 

 

 

Blast From The Past Brings Helpful Reminder For The Future

A few weeks ago, several people I attended elementary school with in Queens, NY started e-mailing one another.  They thought it would be fun to get in touch with old classmates and each one started e-mailing someone they still kept in touch with.  This simple e-mail event snowballed into an avalanche of e-mails (somewhere in the 400-500 range) and before anyone knew it, 15 of us were connected again.  In fact the e-mails were so detailed that a website was started so we could all blog our stories and archive our photos.  This way our stories would have a way to live on.  The Internet is truly a marvelous thing!

My husband Mark and I have known each other since the 4th grade and often reminisce about "the old days" but our memories are limited.  It has been so much fun hearing old stories that other people still remember as if it were yesterday.  Next year will be our 30th anniversary from graduating 6th grade together.

One of my favorite parts of this "trip down memory lane" has been the sharing of old photos.  We have all been posting old class photos, party photos, and then/now photos.  One classmate even returned to the neighborhood and took photos of our school.  Some things haven't changed in 30 years -- a little scary! 

The only sad part of this is that some people have been forgotten.  We see their faces in class photos but no one remembers their names.  They may have moved away or simply not been friends with any of us.  Sometimes they were our friends but we lost touch after school and now everyone is drawing a blank on their name.   

From this I have learned a valuable lesson -- write down details!  My children are already in 5th and 6th grades and I have all of their class photos but I never wrote down the names of their classmates. I also have many great photos of them with their friends.  While I'd love to believe that they will ALL be friends FORVER, history has shown that this is rarely the case.  The one thing I CAN do is write down the names of their friends -- perhaps even scrapbook a little about each one.  I can also write down the names of their principal, teachers, and classmates.  This way, 30 years from now when my sons look back on their grade school days, they will be able to identify everyone in their photos and maybe even have a story to tell about them!  This is my new project and I challenge all of you to do the same!

(a photo of me from 4th grade when I met my husband!)

A Labor of Love

Being crafty, as many of you know, is a gift in many ways. You love the fact that you’re considered “creative” by your family and friends but sometimes that can put a lot of pressure on a person.  Unless you’re a crafter, most people don’t fully realize what goes into making a project come to life!  The work itself can be exhausting or, at the least, time consuming.  However it’s the preparation BEFORE the project that is often overlooked.  Still we craft because we love what we do and usually do it for those we love.  My two most recent projects highlight this point.

Back in early October my youngest son’s 10^th birthday was approaching.  As usual I asked him if there was anything special he’d like for his upcoming birthday.  I’m thinking video games, sports jersey, etc.  “I want a new room” he said.  I immediately asked him what that meant exactly since we weren’t moving and I didn’t think his brother had any intention of swapping spaces.  “D” then explained how he wanted a “basketball theme” for his bedroom – something cool and unique – something that was really HIM.  Oh, and it all had to be a surprise!  This was indeed an interesting gift request and I decided to take on the challenge – I mean project.

 

I removed his dresser from the room to make more space (he has California-style closets and didn’t actually need the dresser so that part was easy.)  Then I went shopping.  The local stores had some slim pickings.  Thank goodness for the internet!  I was able to find basketball shelves, hampers, pennants, banners, switch plates, knobs, mats, bedding etc.  I picked up an extra table for his sports’ trophies.  I ordered a Fat Head of LeBron James (famous hoops star) as a focal point for the wall as well.  Everything was coming together.  Still I needed something to make it really “unique and him.”  Found it at the Home Depot!  D loves to draw – he is definitely the one child with a love of art so I decided to give him a HUGE canvas.  I painted his bi-fold door closets with white dry-erase paint.   I bought him a complete set of dry erase markers and an eraser so he could really have a blast

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Well, after weeks of shopping and several days locked in his bedroom painting and assembling things, his birthday arrived and he got his surprise.  He was blown away and my exhaustion was a fading memory.  Well fading until his big brother said “Hey, his room is way cooler than mine now.  I want a Football theme bedroom for my birthday in March!”

As you can guess, it was something I really couldn’t refuse.  Of course it had to be equally cool but unique for HIM.  No pressure at all.  At least I had a few months to plan!  Now, B’s room was a little more of a challenge.  Like his brother, he had too much furniture in his room so I needed to donate another dresser!  Also, he had been sleeping in a red Little Tykes race car Bed since he was 3 – now at the age of 12 he wanted something more “appropriate” for his tween/teen years.

Let the shopping begin!  Is there such as thing as a football bed?  I was about to find out.  I spent the better part of January and early February shopping for everything football and I found it:  a bed and bedding, lamps, hampers, pennants, shelves – even a mini locker table, and more.  Of course a Fat Head of LaDainian Tomlinson was a must!

 

Now what about the closets?  I couldn’t do the same thing as I did for his brother – that wouldn’t work!  Well, inspiration came at the Home Depot.  I found magnetic primer paint there.  Hmmm . . . lockers are magnetic, right?  I then purchased small eye-shaped screws, small pad-locks, and gray paint.  I hand made a stencil from cardstock to look like locker vents.  After two days of priming, painting, stenciling, drilling, and locking, the closets were finished!  So, once again, after a month + of shopping and 72 hours of working in seclusion in my eldest son’s bedroom, he got his birthday surprise and was ecstatic!

Several friends have come over since the room makeovers and asked if this was a business for me.  No, I answered, just a labor of love!  Time for a nap!  Let’s just hope my husband doesn’t want a baseball themed room somewhere in the house!

ORGANIZATION IS THE KEY TO SHARING LIFE’S MOMENTS

I have always had tons of photos but when I made the switch to digital – well let’s just say “my cup has runneth over”.  While many people who use digital cameras say their biggest problem is never printing out their photos – I had the opposite problem.  I print all of mine!  In fact, I have so many photos that it was overwhelming!  What was I going to do with all of them?  I knew that I couldn’t use those old magnetic albums since the acid was simply going to eat away at my beloved memories. 

Four years ago, I started organizing them in shoeboxes.  I have roughly 2 boxes for each year and seasonal dividers in each box, going back to early 90s.  Sounds great, right?  NOT!  First of all, that’s A LOT of shoeboxes!!!  Being “out of sight” also meant that many of those photos were not going to be scrapped any time soon.   Worst yet, who is EVER going to look at those photos?  Not me.  Not my family. Not my friends.   

Picture this.  A group of friends come over and you all start talking about a barbeque you had a few years ago.  Someone asks if DAVE was at that one.  You decide to look at the photos from the party.  First, you have to find “the right box” which wouldn’t be too bad if a) the boxes are in a convenient location – mine were not – and b) if you can actually remember the YEAR of the party.  Once you have those two things in place you can start searching through the hundreds and hundreds of photos in the box until you find it. 

Clearly that system wasn’t working for me.  About six months ago I discovered these wonderful albums by Pioneer that hold six 4x6 photos (in plastic sleeves)on each side of the page.  Now that’s A LOT of photos.  The albums are also refillable so I can keep 400-600 photos in a book if I want.  Better still is that I can actually SEE the photos which means when I am ready to “scrap” an event it will be easy to choose the photos I really want for the layouts.  I am still in the process of my moving my photos out of the boxes and into these albums.  Why is it taking so long?  Because every time I open another box I’m seeing photos I almost forgot about and wind up taking a break from organizing so I can scrap them! 

Organizing your photos is truly the key to sharing life’s moments.  So even if you don’t scrapbook, think about getting your photos out of those old shoeboxes and into albums that are safe for your photos and make them easy to enjoy! -- Dawn

"Why Do You Scrap?"

"Why Do You Scrap Mom?"  That was the question of the day Saturday posed by my twelve year old son Brett.  I had just attended a 2am-er (scrapping from Friday at 4pm until 2am Saturday) and was wiped out in the early morning hours when I needed to start my day with the boys.  "Who do you think I do this for?" I asked him. He tilted his head in puzzlement.  I could see the wheels turning in his head right before he answered.  "Why yourself of course, but I mean why?  You just spent 10 hours scrapbooking and you didn't even do that many pages." 

Well he was  right about one thing -- I didn't get THAT many pages done.  Then again that wasn't my goal.  I don't look at scrapbooking as a speed sport.  I don't have a problem spending an hour or two doing a layout if that's what I think it needs to tell the story the way I want it told.

He was wrong about one thing though -- while I LOVE scrapbooking and find it a fabulous way to spend my time, I really scrapbook for my family -- my husband, my kids, and hopefully someday, grandkids, great grandkids, nieces, nephews, etc. 

My mother loved taking photos and I imagine I got the shutterbug gene from her.  When she passed away in 2004 my father found hundreds and hundreds of old photos from her younger days.  Many of the photos were taken before my parents ever met and my father couldn't offer any help in identifying who was in the photos or where they were taken.  She had no living relatives that could help me answer my questions.  With the exception of a few photos labeled with pencil on their backs, much of her life remains a mystery to me.  Right now I am trying to have my dad identify the details from my childhood photos.  Again, nothing was written down so I'm banking on him remembering some of the details from my earliest days! 

I explained all of this to Brett.  I told him that I wanted him to always remember the magic of his life and I wanted him to be able to share our stories with his family some day.  In the long run I think that knowing who we really are and what we loved are more important than just what we look like.   He definitely GOT it.  He told me that he really did love the scrapbooks I made -- especially the ones from vacations. 

Of course our conversation ended when he wanted to call "dibs" on the scrapbooks when I'm "gone someday!"  His brother Dylan chimed in to protest.  Ah, the peanut gallery was listening after all.  While flattered, I told him that he'll have to duke that one out with his brother -- thankfully I won't be around to see that argument but it's kind of nice knowing it'll happen one day.