Checking In

Perhaps I can be known as Scrapping Lawyer Mom #2. Or, maybe not? Here are my scrapbooking thoughts for the day and some ideas I will refer back to for future blog entries:

1.) I haven't actually made a page in a while. However, I am having fun making the memories for my scrapbooks. Maybe I can try to post some tips about how to stay organized when you're saving the scrapbook materials for future crops. Maybe I can try to actually use those tips more often. Sometimes I have everything organized and sometimes it all turns into a huge mess. Right now the most recent items are just sitting on my desk. I do use organizers so that things do not get mixed up. So, my circus tickets are not mixed up with my Fire Island ferry tickets and both of those will probably make it into scrapbooks. There's no real point here except that I am thinking that I can make some future posts about how to stay organized and how to store information and journaling so that you do not forget those key scrapbook moments.

2.) I have some back and neck injuries. Maybe I can post some information about how to keep this hobby going in spite of that. As Darlene knows, I bring an adjustable secretary chair to some of the local crops. If I know that a place only has chairs that are going to put me in pain, I bring my chair. Hey, everyone is lugging so much into these crops, so what's another chair? So many people tell me that they wish they'd thought of it. I'm going to make some mental notes about which local crops provide comfortable seating. Darlene, we should decide whether to publish crop information on here. We don't run crops but we are on some e-mail lists and we keep each other posted. Maybe I can talk more about how to keep the hobby going when it can be tough to sit for long periods of time.

3.) I have not been supply shopping in a while. I decided that in 20 years I am not going to know whether I used the latest greatest paper for a page I made in 2011. I have a great supply of papers, embellishments and stamps but I do not have a lot of time to shop plus I was really spending too much money. I've been on some scrapbooking internet boards where some people make vows to use their current supplies and not buy anything for a set amount of time. I'm not so strict with myself and I know that if I have time to kill and I am near a scrapbook store or if I have insomnia and I happen upon an online site, I may be buying something. However, we can probably all make an effort to use what we have. As an aside to that, I also want to make an effort to know what I have. Sometimes I can go shopping right in my own supplies and I'll find something I had forgotten about and maybe I'll even use it in a different way than I originally intended. So, perhaps I will make some future posts about shopping and about making use of the supplies you already own by shopping at home.

4.) I have some interest in digital scrapbooking. I like to keep it simple, though and I don't use Photoshop often. I can talk about how to make some simple collages in Picasa and I can review some of the options on Shutterfly. I would also like to try out the digital options from Creative Memories and Close to My Heart. I also have some great ideas for making cards and scrapbook pages that use a combination of digital and old school scrapbooking. Sometimes I like to make a small collage or page and then mat it on 12x12 paper and add in some "real embellishments." I'm not switching over to digital entirely and but maybe I can talk about hybrid scrapbooking.

5.) Photos!!!!!!!!!!!!! The camera that I now consider to be "my camera" was really a gift that I bought for my husband. He loves technology and he wanted to have a DSLR camera because it was the thing to buy. Well, we had no idea that I would pick up the camera and not put it down until I learned as much as I could about everything it does. Since we bought the camera, I have read many books, I have taken some courses and I added some more accessories to the basic camera and lens kit. I've also just experimented with camera settings and that is the fun part. For future posts I would love to review some books about photography, talk about techniques I have tried and I'll discuss some ideas about matching photos to the scrapbook page and how to decide which photos to pair together on a page.

Gee, and I was wondering if I would really have a lot to say on a blog about scrapbooking.

PS...Darlene, I did not mean for this post, which has no fun photos, to bump your post. Can we put things in a different order if we want to? I guess we can schedule publication times but we'll discuss privately!