Dressing up the word with paste and pencil

catching up on my reading the newspapers from the last week and this article caught my eye. Dressing up the word with paste and pencil. In particular an exhibit at the Folger "Extending the Book" (grangerizing or extra-illustration). The article likens it to scrapbooking. Interesting reading and although I'm not too too far away a trip into DC isn't happening right now.

Negativity

i've been spending a lot of time in my off hours scanning negatives.
my husband gave me the film and slide converter I'd asked for as a christmas gift. It took me months to get a chance to use it - but once i got started i've been a scanning fool. now i've got a ton of old photos scanned in and ready to print when i need them. For me - having these negatives scanned and in my computer served a few purposes. #1 - if anything happens to the negatives i know i've got another source for these memories. #2 - it's nice to have the ability to just quickly go to my computer files and pull up these photos instead of going thru the negatives. #3 - it's a heck of a lot easier to get prints made from the digital version than the negative. Remember the old days when you had to take your rolls of film or negatives to be printed... then wait? I've gotten so spoiled - just upload to Costco, order prints and have my prints the same day or the next.
Maybe for some people all the effort scanning wouldn't be worth it but to me - it's wonderful and worth the time. I'm still working on baby albums. And i've got a scrapbook project (other than my kids albums) that i'm going to be working on (a gift) - i needed to go thru a lot of these negatives to find pics. Now that's done.
The film and slide converter my husband bought me is a great little tool. I'll be able to use it when i one day tackle converting my grandparents slides to digital (that will be an undertaking of major proportions!). The only thing i wished i could convert is my 110 film. I've got a lot of 110 negatives.
As far as what i've been scrapbooking of late: graduation photos for both my kids, some random photos of my inlaws house. I need to get started with my daughter's baby album - that's the next ongoing project i'm starting. Maybe then i'll post some layouts. need to add a little pictorial to this blog!

Scrapbook and Self Works

if you've got some time - or like accompaniment to your scrapbooking in the form of recorded material as I do - take a listen to this wonderful lecture given by Jessica Helfand and Rebecca Johnson Melvin at the Cooper-Hewitt here. The only bad thing about it is you'll have to stop repeatedly (what you're doing) to look. I still mean to purchase Jessica Helfand's book, Scrapbooks: An American History but in the meantime, I really enjoyed listening (and watching) this video. Gotta run....

Paperclipping Roundtable

It's been a long time since I've posted but here I am. I haven't stopped scrapbooking at all. There was a time, due to work committments, I had to put it on hold a little - but rest assured Suzy lives.
I've wanted to blog here for quite a while but decided time was better spent working on pages etc.
So why am I here today? Well I don't know about you but I scrap better with accompaniment in the form of music, tv shows, or podcasts. (I always studied this way too - gotta have some background noise!) I recently found "The Paperclipping Roundtable". It's a podcast I download via itunes. They have a new show every Wednesday and have some regular members as well as guests. Scrapbooking type folks - like Stacy Julian and Ali Edwards. I've enjoyed listening, for the most part. My only - i hesitate to use the word - complaint - is the endless references to "the industry". The members are part of "the industry" yet want to reassure listeners they are "just regular scrapbookers". It is a bit tiresome. I think we can just say - they work in the biz - and move on. Get back to talking about scrapbooking.
Which in today's episode they did!
I really enjoyed listening to the discussion of tools (always a fun topic for scrapbookers!) Hearing the members talk about the tools they've bought that were stinkers (frank and funny comments) as well as tools they'd like to buy: Renee Pearson telling how she'd like to have a Slice - Lain saying she loved her Slice so much she got rid of her Silhouette and the other members chime in with "ooooooooooo" - it was like listening to a group of your friends talking at a crop. And for me, today's show was just what I was looking for in a scrapbooking podcast just for that reason. There was information and fun girl chat (Izzy - the lone male member- notwithstanding - who, by the way is very entertaining himself).
I'd like to also mention that in addition to a weekly topic, there are segments for scrapbook industry news and product picks to round out the show.
So - if you haven't listened to the Paperclipping Roundtable, check it out. Dowload via itunes (or you can listen here.
Ok... hoping to be back soon to update on my scrapbooking progress!

Little Pieces

I mentioned last time I was working on a layout originally planned as a 12x12. And also that I croppped the photos using my rectangle Nestabilities - here's that layout. I fooled around with it a bit more. Decided to use my corner rounder on the photos as well. I also took out my Quickutz Zoe font - i thought it worked nicely with the Making Memories patterned paper for some reason. Regardless I'm liking the whole 8.5x11 size these days. And who would think you could fit 10 pics on two 8.5x11 pages?

I still have a lot to do with the negatives - mostly because events around here are demanding my attention. And I have to begin the next phase of my Photo Freedom project. I'm still wondering whether or not I really need to purchase the storage binders. My photos are all organized and in boxes. Buying and using the binders just seems almost redundant for me. I think - not sure - I can use the boxes as she uses binders. We'll see. Gotta run!

Negatives and tools

I finished my time line of my printed photos (ones using 110 and 35 mm film). I tracked down some negative sleeves at a local Ritz photo store. Actually 50 pages of negative storage. Each holds 7 strips of 35 mm negatives. (I will definitely be needing hundreds more of these negative sheets before I'm finished.)
Now I'm on a hunt for what to do with the 110 negatives. If anyone has seen storage (preferably sheets that fit into a binder: 3 hole, 8.5 x 11) I'd appreciate the info.
Anyway I began filling up those 50 sheets last night as I watched a little TV. That's going to take a bit of time - but little by little it will get done. I know in Stacy Julian's book "Photo Freedom" she says just throw the negatives in a box - keep them safe and don't worry about organizing them. But I am just not up for doing that. Her reasoning was sound (if some disaster happens she won't mind looking through the negatives) but for me - well I just don't want to do it. I have so many years of photos and will no doubt want to get reprints. I know this because as I've gone through the packs of photos I have found not all the prints are there. They were given away or used on some pages or I just don't know why they aren't there. So having the negatives organized is important to me. But like I said I will be doing the organization in small bites. A little here, a little there.
And a quick note before I run - I was working on a layout this morning. More for my son's baby scrapbook. I was looking at all the photos and realized they all could fit on 2 pages (instead of the original 3 I planned) if I cropped them a bit better. Then I realized I could use my rectangle Nestabilities and get this cropping done in no time. And I did! All cut to the same rectangle size in a matter of minutes. I love it!

I've been busy

Reading .....
Photo Freedom by Stacy Julian and Family History Scrapbooking by Becky Higgins
Now you might be thinking - I thought you gave up on all these books and magazines. And yes I have. I stopped my magazine subscriptions entirely. But these 2 books have been nagging at me since they came out. The Becky Higgins book came out while I was still working at the store and I didn't even look at it I was so disenchanted with all the books at the time. The Photo Freedom book has only been out a few months but it talks about (in detail) Stacy's system that she's mentioned in both her previous books (which I have) and covers in her online class Library of Memories (which I'd love to take but it ain't cheap. I hoped for a "book" version and my prayers were answered LOL).
I picked up the Family History book at AC Moore with a 50% off coupon. It's really pretty great. I know it will help me down the line when I attack the stacks and stacks of old family (my childhood etc) photos I have. But what's on my mind is the pictures I've got from my college days onward - I was telling my friend June howI've been reading the book and began the timeline Stacy talks about in the beginnning. You timeline your photos so you have a reference point (who was what age when this happened for example). I created a little spreadsheet and am just about done with that and I've discovered I have 190 packages of photos in 9 boxes.
Frightening huh?
And that doesnt even count the 5 years of digital photos I've got.
So I needed to get this under control - and I'm thinking this book is going to help me out immensely. If nothing else, I've gotten a renewed enthusiasm and also realize there is more than one way to skin a cat (Frankie & Spencer - you didnt hear me type that!)
I'll be finishing my timeline probably today or tomorrow and then onto the scarey part - taking some of the photos out of chronological order (not all but some). I'll let you know how I do.