Saturday, February 28, 2009

The Next Set Will Be...

H-D based. I have a lot of photos of us on different rides, and I need layouts for them. If I can do a set of 12 random layouts in a little under 36 hours, I can do enough layouts to take care of all the H-D photos I have selected. Next I'll do a set of Christmas layouts.

Working in sets like this will help me deal with my scraps of paper a bit better. If I just work on the next page I can't ever decide that I've used up enough of a paper and I end up with this growing pile of scraps. My worry is that I get tired of using the paper before the set is complete. I think a set of 12 is a bit much for the spinner. If I work on a smaller set, I'll have less chance of boredom. Eight sounds about right. That would be based on four sheets of 'base' paper and three or four sheets of contrasting paper. Yeah.

Friday, February 27, 2009

Finishing the Set



The second half of the set of 12 layouts for the 7 Gypsies Carousel. I had one cutting error that required me to use an additional 12x12 piece of paper, but I also was using 8.5 x 11 for the solids and I ended up with two sheets that I didn't need to cut into. The full sheets of paper go back into the stash, the scraps are going to be tossed out. Yay! The exceptions are the scraps of cream and dark brown that I use on namy layouts.

Page Sets and Scraps

While trying to use up my stash, I'm running into a problem. There are ever growing piles of scraps. All I can see is that I'm turning my stash of uncut pieces of paper that are easy to store and select for use into a smaller pile of odd shapes and sizes that are difficult to store and difficult to sort through to find what I want.

I'll select paper with a plan of using the paper for a specific set of pages. At some point, I'll have that set of pages completed. I might even have more than that set completed. I'll have added to the pile of scraps.

Why am I keeping those scraps? I have used the paper for the purpose I intended. I might even have exceeded that plan. Why can't I stop there and call that a win? Why must I keep scraps and attempt to get win+ out of them by saving them to use for some future layout?

The conclusion is, I do NOT have to keep those scraps. I am not starving for paper that I must hoard each and every molecule of it. I had a plan for the paper. I achieved what I planned. If I stop there and toss the scraps, I've got a win-win. I used up my paper and I used it to create something. What more do I want?

Thursday, February 26, 2009

Gift Paper

A dear friend gave me a stack of 7 Gypsies Zanzibar paper. I added some of my stash of solid 8.5 x 11 paper and I'm making a set of a dozen layouts for my spinner. I'm also making a set of similar layouts to give to my friend (who is also working on a spinner) as a return gift.



The spinner pages are so small compared to a regular 12 x 12 layout, that I will only use about 1/3 of the stack to complete 24 layouts. that's a plus if you are conserving your resources, but since I'm trying to use up my stash, it's a little frustrating. All that work and I will barely put a part of a dent into my stash.

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Necessity is a Mother

I used to do a lot of my cropping in one store or another. Every time I'd have some crisis of design, I'd go wander the store and buy something to solve the crisis. But the local scrapping stores have closed and I have this huge stash that I'm trying to use up. So instead of shopping in a store, I go shopping in my own stash.

Right now, I'm looking at a piece of paper that I want to put onto a tag, but I have no tag of the correct size and shape. I also need to figure out how heavy the tag must be to withstand the strain of being an interactive piece of scrapping. Hmmm... I think I'll use a manila folder and do some paper piecing. I can punch an oval and use it as the guide for the shape of the top of the tag and it will cover the plain manila.

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Valentine's Cards

I try to give my Wonderful Husband a card a day during the month of February. He loves it. He was teasing me a bit earlier this month and asked as he was opening an envelope,"So all this ends at the end of February?"

I realized that I don't have to wait for February to give my husband an 'I love you' card. I can give him an 'I love you' card any day of the year. So I will. Does it matter that I'm not an incredible cardmaker? Nope. He loves the cards I make, no matter what they look like. (I love my husband dearly, but he can't choose a tie to go with a shirt.)

Sunday, February 22, 2009

Renee Pearson!

Renee is a writer, a teacher and first and probably foremost, an artist. She does some incredibly neat stuff. I've wanted her books on digital scrapbooking for a while now and it makes no sense for me to wait any longer. I've ordered one from Amazon. I wish the other would go into re-prints. I'm not spending that much $$ for a book. Nope. Not gonna.

I've added her blog, fertilepress, to my list of blogs on this page. Check it out!

Monday, February 16, 2009

What Else do I Do?

I don't always work with paper. Sometimes I work with fabric. I have two sewing machines and one serger. My good old, reliable sewing machine is a Bernina 1130. It looks like this. It still works just fine, but I don't use it as my primary machine any more.



I've got a newer machine, one that does embroidery. It's a 165E, which doesn't tap dance, it wasn't the top of the line, but it was exactly the one that I wanted, because it had the same bobbin action as the 1130, and produced a top quality regular stitch. When set up for embroidery, it looks like this.



I also have the software that will allow me to create my own embroidery designs. I finally got it loaded onto this laptop and I'll be playing with it a little bit. It's possible to buy patterns on-line, download them and then send them to your machine to embroider. The application has a very small audience, as software goes, and it is extremely buggy and expensive.

Sunday, February 8, 2009

What is it a Picture of?




I was looking at this badly exposed photo from when I was still figuring out camera settings and thinking frustrated thoughts. There was a bright area with water behind us, and the camera had exposed for that, leaving us in the dark.

Every time I looked at that dark photo, I was unhappy with it. I'd brightened it up some, but the water was OK and we were still dark.

Then I got a case of 'AHA!' I don't care if the water is overexposed.This is not a picture of water, it's a picture of people. So I threw it back into Photoshop and brightened it up a lot more. It's got some issues, but at least the people look a lot better.



The important thing was asking myself, "What is this a picture of?" and then acting based on that.