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!

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.

Working with what you have and GASC

I have been working with what i have for a few months now. Trying not to buy anything. Finding ways to use my stash (which, people, is considerable. I have a room full of scrapbooking, stamping, sewing and art supplies. Literally a room full of shtuff) I've mentioned before that in my favorite Rebecca Sower book she talks about not getting all concerned about having the perfect shade of cardstock. I aspire to this point of view. I am a color person. So lately I find that

yes - I can use up my stash - but to do so I am using up my neutrals. Things that go with anything. And avoiding color - cos if I use color it has to coordinate. It can't clash. My teeth will hurt if it does ok? So the other day - Thursday I guess it was - I decided i'd do some more laundry (see previous post) - and do a birthday layout. My daughter's last birthday. I looked through the photos and then went to my carsdstock and paper and thought WHAT am I going to do. I finally - i mean i spent maybe 10 minutes pondering the possibilities - chose this Bazzill orange. The daughter's favorite color is orange. There was some orange in the photos (miniscule as it was ) and better still - there was blue - which always will compliment the orange. (get your color wheel out if you are puzzled). Next I went to my patterned paper - I really need to use this stuff up. I flipped through a lot of paper and finally i happened upon this Imaginisce paper. (I have no recollection of buying this paper - at all.) And you know - it went really nicely and had stars all over it. I thought - she's my star so why the heck not. Some Quickutz Zoe font added and i was pretty much done. There were a lot of photos that birthday for some reason. I ended with 3 pages. Yes, I used my Creative Memories cutting system to cut out the photo of the cake (or rather the Ice Cream Pie - its a family thing). If you don't have the Creative Memories Cutting system, I highly recommend it. They have theeee best cutting stuff around.

Onward

The Great American Scrapbook Convention rolled into town again this year. I've gone every year. I hate to say it but it was not the experience it has been in years past. The first few years it was wild - you could barely move around and the noise was just incredible. Now granted I got there not long after they opened on Friday. I am sure that today it will be a lot busier. However, I wasn't finding the shopping so great. It's possible, because I have so much stuff, I just wasn't finding it tempting at all. I think its more that there just isn't the product that is knocking my socks off. I think its peaked out ladies. I've been saying this probably the last two years - the industry is gonna peak out and fall hard. Just too much all the time and really fast and finally there will be nothing i have to have.

Having said that - I did indeed buy a few things. First - I spied one scalloped circle giga punch by Marvy Uchida. I have the scalloped oval and was kicking myself I hadn't gotten the circle. There it was - and i wasn't going to hesitate cos I only saw the one.

I also happened upon a booth by a company I don't think i've seen before: Distinctly Me They were the nicest two ladies with some lovely products and, as I told them, the nicest layouts on display at the whole convention. They had the most classic layouts I've seen displayed. Not tons of product all over them - just well designed, good looking pages. And you could see their photos. The pages would sell anyone's products the way they were done. Anyway i bought a package of very pretty cork embellishments as well as a bottle of something called Paper Glide made by Inspired Crafts . They demonstrated this product for me and I was sold - it makes dry embossing very easy to do - the stylus just glides right over your paper.

Okay - I need to do non-Suzy things now. I do have a little special project I hope to share in the next few days. We'll see how much time I get to work on it over the weekend.

Monday morning hello

As you can see to my right - Monday is my planning day.
Sort of a catch all day in my scrapbook world
In addition to planning some pages to work on the rest of the week
I'm cleaning up in my little craft room here.
I know i'm very lucky to have a room devoted to my stuff
It keeps it all in one place
although when it is messy
as it is now
i often take things out of here and work downstairs
which for me is productive - i still get to work on things -
yet this room has reached the point of explosion.
The "i can't stand it" level of mess
It makes it impossible for me to think in here with so much stuff
on the floor, all over my drawing table, on my computer desk.
I am one of those people who can indeed work in the mess
I can find things in piles of mess
But to be creative, and productive, I need a little order
So Monday's are good for planning, cleaning up and starting new.
I'm also hoping to get a little scanning of old photos done
That's a long range project i've been working on.
Tons of photos from my childhood that I'm scanning into my computer
Categorizing by the people in the photos
When i'm all done - it's going to take months - i plan to give a CD of the pictures to both of my sisters. They are big subjects of the photos along with myself, our brother, parents and grandparents. My sisters will love this gift. Everyone in my family loves to look at old photos and reminisce.
Between today and tomorrow i also will be taking some pictures of what i've been making.
Latest pages.
I also want to mention a few other things:
In case you haven't visited Purple Onion Designs lately you may not have noticed - POD is in June's Creating Keepsakes hilighting the fabulous vintage postmark set! Check it out here
www.purpleoniondesigns.com and click on the "As seen in Creating Keepsakes" - great samples at the bottom of that page too.
If you didn't get a chance to see Martha's shows last week - they were all about scrapbooking. There are some great videos from the show on her website. My absolute favorites were the segments she did with Darcy Miller who showed off theeeee most wonderful scrapbooks she has made.
They are my kind of scrapbooks - real old-fashioned - tons of scraps, bits and pieces of their lives - scrapbooks! Check out these links and watch the videos. I think it may just remind you what we all started scrapbooking for - it did me

http://www.marthastewart.com/portal/site/mslo/menuitem.3a0656639de62ad593598e10d373a0a0/?vgnextoid=8713f6d63d272110VgnVCM1000003d370a0aRCRD&autonomy_kw=darcy's%20scrapbook&rsc=ns2006_m1
and
http://www.marthastewart.com/portal/site/mslo/menuitem.3a0656639de62ad593598e10d373a0a0/?vgnextoid=5f11d69a31571110VgnVCM1000003d370a0aRCRD&autonomy_kw=darcy's%20wedding%20scrapbook&rsc=ns2006_m2