My Blog Has Moved!!

It's official!  A Scrapper's Thoughts has moved and has had a slight name change to Scrapping Thoughts.  You can find me blogging now over at www.scrappingthoughts.com.  Please come join me in my new location!

Carol Anne

Hiatus Explained and Gone

I've been on a year long scrapbooking hiatus. I've been working hard to get my bills paid off, which meant no scrapbooking for me. It was too much of a temptation to pull out the stuff -- then I would want to run out and get some other supplies. So I decided to go cold turkey.
After the beginning of the year, I pulled out the pages I completed in 2008 and put them into the kids' albums. I sorted through some pictures, and got started again.
My goal, to get started, is one layout a week. I've hit that goal, and I'm amazed at how long it takes me to put together a page now. Two hours! I use to do 5 or 6 layouts in that time.
I wouldn't say my quality is any better, taking more time vs. less time. I think I'm just out of the groove and feeling more unsure about my choices and supplies.
I did go to an Archivers ScrapMania last month. It felt good, I enjoyed myself, and somethings never change. I'm still very untrendy in my page design, but everyone marvels at all the journalling that I put on a page. They're amazed I can think of stuff to write. They don't know that's never really been an issue for me. Every picture tells a story, to quote a Rod Stewart song.
As long as I can keep my housework up-to-date, my grading completed, and the general turmoil of life at a low simmer, I can look forward to cranking out my page (or two) every week. I'm glad to be back.

Coming Home

I've been messing around with a different blog in a different blogging software. I've decided to come home to this blog -- where I have all my old stuff and can continue to do my new stuff. And I have more flexible features.
So you'll probably see more action over here in the future. I've just finished transferring over posts from my other blog. I'm glad to be back home.

TGI-GMail

I had to send some large files last night via my MSN account. Unfortunately, the files weren't zipping smaller, and I couldn't get what I wanted using a third-party file transfer program.

On a whim, I flipped over to my one and only GMail account and ... no issues with file size. While I'm not in the mood to test the limits of GMail and it's file transfer protocol, I am very glad that it fit my needs right now.

Inked Edges

I've been searching for the "perfect" technique to ink edges digitally. I've been searching for about 6 months now, but nothing I see fits my criteria. I'm probably too picky, looking for look-alike ink edges.

I'm sort of picky with my real inked edges, too. They have to be messy, irregular, sometimes with oops areas where I lose my grip on the pad and it goes flying across the paper.

Just how do you create that digitally? Or create a script that runs that effect.

I keep reminding myself that Google and Delicious are my friends. I'll figure it out -- I always do. Maybe I just need another 6 months of searching and playing.

Double Dipping -- Part 2

I had another opportunity to learn a scrapbooking technique in the course of work. This time I learned how to make torn pages. It saves space to just show a portion of a repetitive report as an example graphic.

Now, I didn't ink the edges. That would have been too much.

In the course of looking for a torn-edge tutorial, I found at least four more PaintShop Pro tutorial sites that I have never seen before. My Delicious tag list for PSP is up to 17 entries now.

Double Dipping

Sometimes I really love my job.

I was working on a graphic for user interface prototype, and needed a technique I've seen used in scrapbooking to pull the graphic together.

So, I did a google search on some keyword, and started surfing digital scrapbooking sites. After a few minutes, I found detailed instructions for the technique. About 30 minutes later, I had mastered the technique.

Two for the "price" (time) of one: a technique I can use professionally AND in my hobby.

PSP Plaid

I took some time out from grading to play with a beginner PSP (PaintShop Pro) tutorial. Because of my scotties, I decided to try the tutorial to make a swatch of plaid.

I used some really bright, obnoxious colors. I wound up with a really bright madras plaid. Not at all Scottish. Here's a link to the tutorial.

http://www.whisperscorner.com/tuts/basicplaid/index.html

It's pretty easy, and with a little extra thought, it could be translated into a (gasp!) Photoshop process.

Quality vs. Quantity

Spent some time today working through the first two weeks' assignments in Cathy Z's "Design Your Life" class. I'm a month behind in the class, but that's life.

I like what I'm learning so far. As a technical writer, I need to consider design when I craft documents for work -- especially when I am creating graphics. The design principles Cathy describes are universal. They apply to scrapbooking, web design, photography, newsletter design. Anything that is visual.

So right now I am concentrating on balance and symmetry -- not two of my strong points right out of the box. What I find interesting is how difficult I find applying this concept to scrapbooking. But, if I am working entirely with text or widgets, it comes naturally to me.

Perhaps the solution is that I need to look at all the things that I put on a scrapbook page as widgets or funny-looking paragraphs of text.

I use to play with placement when I first started scrapbooking -- moving things around before pasting it down. I stopped playing around as my crafting time got more limited.

Perhaps that's where the actual issue lies: I am limited by the clock. I can't produce as many pages as I use to a sitting, because I have less time to actually work. And that is impacting the quality of my work because I'm trying to produce the same quantity that I had in the past.

I think I need to explore my quality/quantity dilemna.

Actual Scrapbooking! Actual Stamping!

I did two layouts this weekend!
This one is all digital, using the Club Scrap January 2008 digital kit


This one is a hybrid, using the Club Scrap December 2007 kit.

I made Chinese New Year cards for the NiHao swap earlier in the week.
The paper is from the Club Scrap January 2005 kit, the stamps are all miscellaneous.


Hoping this is the end of my creative slump.