38 and Holding...

I'm not ready to lie about my age...yet.

That time may come though.

One of my self-portraits this year. (SOOC--straight out of camera, no post-processing). Happy Birthday to me!

ALBM Next Steps: Lift-the-Flap Technique

This next section is a place for you to talk about what you are passionate about. Do you have a cause that dear to your heart? Can you even go a day without scrapbooking? Would you be lost if you could no longer sing? As before, Ink the edges of your title section. I also used my Crafter's Workshop templates on this page. I like those templates because you get a lot of mileage out of them, and with just a pen and some patterned paper, you can get a lot of unique looks.

Cut 4 squares out of your patterned paper (mine are roughly two inches square) and score them 1/2 inch from (whatever you designate as) the top. Glue just this half inch section to your page so that your flap can lift up. I used Making Memories Tiny Type stickers on mine to define each of my top four passions.

Under each flap, I journaled a bit about each one.

Questions? Just leave a comment!

Some Questions about the Choices I Didn't Make

There was a question about what I meant by "The Choices I Didn't Make." My feeling is that if one person has a question, probably someone else has it as well but just didn't ask. So here goes:

The idea behind this prompt is to think about your forks in the road. Did you not marry the person you first thought you would marry? Did you have a specific thought about your career when you were in High School that just didn't happen? It's not meant to be a big downer, but rather an affirmation of the choices you did make. And a specific list of the things that at one time were on your smorgasbord of life.

In my book I have these ideas:

1. I didn't marry my high school boyfriend. We dated a long time, and talked about it some--it was always something that I felt hung in the air around us. We stayed in touch for a few years after high school (We wrote regularly during our first year of college at different schools, and for two more years while he served a church mission in South Korea, but didn't end up together. When he came home from his mission, I had just started dating my husband. I could have pursued that relationship when he got back to the states, but I didn't. That for me was a choice I Didn't make.
2. I didn't pursue a career singing on Broadway or in Opera. At one time, I really wanted this. I wanted to have a family more. Another choice I Didn't Make.
3. In High School, I had decided that I was going to become a Research Scientist in the field of Genetics. After finishing my B.S in Biology w/a genetics emphasis, and working in a couple of on-campus Genetics Research Labs as a lab grunt, I realized that was not the life for me. This was another choice I Didn't Make.

I also wrote that I wished I had traveled more when I was single, and given myself a chance to study abroad or something like that, and that I'd wished I'd avoided all the credit cards that are thrown at college students.

Does that help? Please leave me a comment and let me know.

More ALBM: Accordion Techniques

For the next pages in your ALBM book we'll be making two accordian booklets to put inside. You can keep the pages closed with a brad and a photo turn. Again (it probably goes without saying by now) cut out the title and ink the edges. I used my Crafter's Workshop template to make the big circle of dots. I used a 7 Gypsies 97% complete stamp for the smaller circles on the Accordian booklets.

Now: to make the booklet, cut a 3.5 inch by 12 inch strip of cardstock. Fold it in half. Crease the fold smooth and tight with a bone folder. Then take the end of the strip and fold it back towards the fold you just made (essentially folding it in half again). You will now have a 4-panel accordian. Glue the bottom panel to your book. Secure with the brad/photo turn combination. TIP: Write on your accordian first. Also, be aware of the direction your accordian opens. In my book, the accordian opens to the outside of my book. This means that they are put in the book in a sort of opposite fashion from each other. Trust me, this will make sense when you are manipulating your own papers. Also, BE VERY AWARE of where your brad is going if you are using double sided papers. You don't want to put a brad through the window of your mode of transportation on the other side.

Questions? Leave a comment and let me know.

What are your Big Rocks?

I blog-surfed into Pink Chalk Studio's blog (who does gorgeous patchwork and other fabric-y stuff) and found the link to a story that talked about Stephen Covey's lecture on first things first and Rocks. This got me thinking: What are the things in my life that are my Big Rocks? I'll list mine here when I've got it figured out. I am pretty sure what my sand and gravel things are. (Hello! I just spent two hours blog surfing!) I'm really into defining things in my life right now. I'm working through some stuff in my head. I'd share, but it's messy in there. Let me first figure out what my Big Rocks are.

What are yours?

Three things for Charity

The 2peas blogger challenge for Thursday was "What 3 three things would you donate to charity right now?" and this is right up my alley as I get ready for a major home purge and decluttering!

Mine would be:

1. Clothes from my closet. It's been said that we wear 20% of our wardrobe 80% of the time. I've been trying for the past few years to change those numbers and only have pieces in my wardrobe that I actually wear. If I've worn it even once the past year, it has a chance of staying around. I have a bunch of things that I know I haven't worn, or don't make me feel happy or good when I wear them. They are OUT!
2. Old scrapbook supplies. I look at my stuff (and while it's not as much as some, it is more than others) and I'm kinda disgusted with all the things I have around here that I haven't used or don't use. I've purged twice this year already, but I'd do it again. Trying to follow the same principle as number 2.
3. I'd go through my boys clothes and do another purge. C is our last child, so it doesn't make sense to keep any of his outgrown stuff.

I'd like to add that the 5 years we've lived here are the longest I've had an address my entire life. Usually we've been forced to purge. Now I have stuff that we've moved in to this house that we haven't touched the entire time we've lived here, or that is still packed from a couple of moves earlier. Those need to go as well.

Good prompt! Now to pass it on to you! Leave a comment and tell me what you would donate to charity.

New Photos in the 30/30 photo challenge

17/30: What we do grow well. Good thing I like 'em. (Please note: as of the 19th of April, this particular dandelion plant is gone, thanks to my DH's hard work in the yard. Don't cry for me; I'm sure there will be others in some part of the yard before the summer's end)

18/30: Another thing growing in our yard. This tree is huge, so I don't think we can really take any credit for it.

19/30: What might be my most favorite picture of the whole series.

unless you count this one:

20/30: And a shot of some of my favorite inspirations

ALBM--Two More Pages

This page is pretty self-explanatory. Write about the people important to you. Cut out the graphic from your Typography pdf, ink the edges, and journal. You are "good-to-go" at this point.

This page is about your modes of transportation. Have fun! (I chose to write about my time as a College Co-Ed "Scooter Chick." It was a time I have fond memories of. TIP: The other side of this page (if you are using single sheets of double-sided papers) will have a brad going through it. You might want to wait until you have the brad in place before you put your picture down, so you can cover it up with a small cardstock circle or your picture or your journaling about your modes of transportation, or whatever you are writing about.

Keep it up! We're in the home stretch! Does anyone have pics of their book to share? (I've seen some of Lida's book). I'd love to see them if you do. Leave a comment and a link!

One More Picture

16/30 DD getting ready to throw the discus at her first track meet. She came in second. I like this one better with a little post-processing. I like how the picture is now all about textures rather than the contrast in color. What do you think?

More ALBM tomorrow. Enjoy!

More 30/30 photos

10/30

11/3012/30

13/30
14/30

15/30

More Waterfall Fold Technique

Okay! I'm back! Start with your 10x2.5 inch strip. (refer to my last post for sizes) You'll need to score it first at 5 1/4 inches--then do 5 more scores all 1/2 inch apart. This is where you'll adhere your 2.5x2.5 inch squares.

Fold it at the first score line you made. It's not quite in half. That's what you want, since you'll need to pull the bottom section to make the "waterfall" effect. Glue your 2.5" squares to each 1/2 inch section, starting from the bottom score line and moving up the paper.
Once your square are all glued on (I don't have mine in this next photo) glue the waterfall section to your base strip (the top half, not the bottom part that you will pull on)

Now you'll want to glue your base strip (on the outer edges only) to your page itself. I recommend journaling on your squares before you glue them down (it works though, even if you journal AFTER the gluing). You'll also want to give a small title to each of your squares. If this is all as clear as mud to you, you can go to this episode of Craft TV Weekly to get some more instruction.

Have fun!

Next Book Steps: Five Little Words

Remember those "five little words" I asked you to decide on? Now's when you are going to use them. You are making your "self-definition" in these five words. They need to be precise, and tell about a specific part of yourself. If you haven't thought of your five words--do it now! Write down a little blurb about why you picked that specific word. In this page, we'll be making a "waterfall fold" for our five words. It's a bit tricky--and at the same time, pretty simple. Here are the original pictures of my book:

When you pull the tab, the pages flip up and under each other. This is a great time to use a Scor-it Board or other scoring tool. It keeps things very precise and neat. If you don't have one, don't worry. You can just use a ruler and a bone folder or dry-embossing stylus. First, cut out 5 squares that are 2.5 inches x 2.5 inches. These are the "pages" of your waterfall fold. You'll also need a 10"x2.5" strip of cardstock. This is what your "pages will be adhered to. Lastly, you'll need a base for your waterfall fold to adhere to. I used a strip that's 1.5"x6 inches (it's the one with the chipboard circles on it).

Tomorrow, I'll post some specific, step-by-step instruction for the waterfall fold. Start with this for now.

Enjoy!

30/3 Photo Challenge

6/30: My purty, my preshus, My Bosch Universal Plus 800. You might remember my mention of it before. I have the most wonderful customer service story to tell about Yvonne at the Oregon Kitchen Center. But I'll save it for another day. 7/30: Neighbor Rod's pretty tree and daffodils. Neighbor Rod used to be a landscape architecht (or something like that). You can see he does good work. I'm not showing a picture of my yard because it would be embarrassing. Our house was a foreclosure, and we need to completely rip out the yard and start over. I'll just leave it at that.

8/30: Birthday Brownies. C. turned 5 today. Yum!

9/30: My lovely April Kit from the Cupcake Scrapshop. Also yummy!

ALBM Places

The next two pages in our book deal with Places. My original intent was a list of the different places you've lived, but you are welcome to interpret that as any Place that has special meaning in your life. Cut out the "Places" word from your Typography PDF. Then ink the edge. On the left side, journal appropriately. On the right side, we'll have our first interative element to the book.

You'll want to cut out a circle for this. You can do this several ways: Coluzzle, EK Success Curvy Cutter, trace a small bowl or dessert plate, go old school w/a compass....it really doesn't matter. Cut out a triangular shaped notch in your circle. I used my Marvy Uchida Clever Lever Country Triangle Punch for both the notch and the triangles I wrote my selected addresses on. (I've moved over 50 times, so I only selected a few of my addresses). Then I used a tab from my SEI Madera Island Collection Pack so that there would be something to hang onto while spinning the wheel. TIP: use the notch on your wheel to help you position what's underneath the wheel. What I mean is, put the wheel on your page first, then lift up the edges and place what you want to be read in the notch exactly where the notch falls on the page. Another tip: Use a chipboard circle as a coaster UNDER the wheel so that the wheel spins freely. Attach the wheel with a brad. Use a paper piercer or a push pin or an anywhere punch to make your hole. Remember that the legs of the brad will show through to the other side of your page (since we are using double-sided paper). We'll cover those up in the next section of the book.

Once again, I decorated/embellished my page with my Crafter's Workshop templates and my Uniball-Signo white pen. I also used flocked paper on purpose for my wheel; I wanted something tactile for this interactive element.

That's all for today! Enjoy!

ALBM Title Page and First two pages

If you haven't covered your covers, do so now. Just choose some paper you like, score it (as per the diagram) and then glue to both the inside and the outside of your chipboard (score the chipboard too). It's easier to punch holes after the paper is on. I recommend the Crop-A-Dile. It's also a good idea to put a little dedication on the inside front cover. Mine is dedicated to my kiddos.

Next, using cut out the title section from your Typography Graphic pdf. This is about 4 inches by 5 inches. Decorate it if you wish (I used my Dots and Circles Template from Crafter's Workshop; I also used the Dots all Around Template in this album, but I don't think I used it on the front page). Ink the edges of your graphic to help it stand out a bit. Embellish the whole page as desired (I used chipboard coasters to carry on my circle theme).

Your first "chapter" in this book goes with the "Just the Facts" section of your Typography Graphic. You'll need a picture of yourself somewhere on the left hand side of the page. It doesn't matter how old you are--it just needs to be you! On the right side of the page, write out your biography. I really recommend that SOME of this be in your own handwriting. In fact, I want you to sprinkle your handwriting all throughout this book. You may hate it, but it will be precious to those you are making the book for. If nothing else, just caption your photos with names, dates, and a short description in your own handwriting. Please do this, you won't regret it.

You'll see that I used my Crafter's Workshop templates here again to decorate my page. Also, ink the edges of your chapter title (the "Just the Facts" part). You may want to cut out all the chapter titles and ink the edges in one step now, to save assembly time later on. I cut the circle out with my EK Success cutting system. You can use any circle cutting system you'd like. You don't even have to cut out a circle! I just had one and wanted to carry out my circle theme.

There you go, the first two pages of your book! Are you excited yet? I truly hope you are enjoying this project. One tip for you: Be aware of your gutter when you are putting the elements on your pages. You'll be frustrated later when you put your book together and discover that something important is INSIDE the gutter and can't be seen. This is true no matter how you are binding your book.

Enjoy! Keep up the good work!

5/30

DD during Taekwondo testing. She's sparring one of the junior instructors. That's why she's padded, and he's not. They're not supposed to actually touch during testing sparring, so that's ok. J. is fierce. I'll just leave it at that.

If you were having trouble...

with the Typography PDF, that is working now. You can download it HERE.

Smiles!~
Dianne

30/30 Challenge, pictures 1-4

1/30: My desk. Where the mess--I mean magic happens.

2/30: A planned shot. This is one of my favorite pieces of turquoise glass in my collection. Next to the pitcher my Mom surprised me with. I took pictures of that too, but decided to just display this one.

3/30: C. whizzing past me on the playground chasing a classmate. He is yelling "No PICTURES!" but I ignored it.

4/30: A close-up of the Playskool Busy Basics Ball Popper. Fun toy. I highly recommend it.

All photos were post-processed with Picnik. Are you Picniking yet? You should be!

Enjoy!

30/30 photo challenge

No. I didn't forget about it. I just wanted to get some of the ALBM book out of the way first. I have been dutifully taking pictures. And by dutifully, it's been like this, "Oh Crud! I have to take a picture today. Ummmm, what can I shoot? ummm, Oh! Here! *click*" (twice now it's just been something that's lying around my computer. You'll see what I mean when you see it). Today is belt testing for tae kwon do so maybe I'll get some interesting action shots.

BTW: If you have niggley computer issues, go to my hubby's new blog and leave a comment and ask. He'll be glad to help you out!

ALBM Typography file and some hints

I've made a pdf file of the typography I used for my chapter headings. You can download it here: ALBM Typography

I printed mine out on Bazzill Orange Peel cardstock. You can use anything that matches your patterned paper. Also I inked the edges of my chapter headings once they were cut out of the cardstock. You can use any stamp pad you like--but take care if you use a Chalk Ink pad; the cardstock can tear chunks out of the pad itself. Black is an all-around good choice. As in decorating, everything in papercrafting can benefit from a touch of black.

Now, a word about your covers. We aren't wrapping the paper around the chipboard. Part of my design process was leaving things in a natural, organic state, with lots of textures (hence my use of velvet and flocked papers). To cover up the raw chipboard, I inked those edges as well. Also, you'll need to cut the outer inch of your cover paper (the inch with the holes) and glue that on separately. This will allow your covers to bend as you open the book. Bendy covers are important! Otherwise they don't open. You can see in the picture that I cut the WRONG end off the back cover of my book. That just helps me illustrate my point better. And no one even noticed.

I hope you are enjoying this project! I can set up a flickr group to post pictures of the finished project if you like, or you can use free galleries such as 2peas or Scrapjazz to post your book. I'd love to see it!

(now don't panic, you aren't expected to be done. I haven't even told you how to put the middle pages together yet. I just wanted you to think ahead to how you are going to show us all your wonderful books!)

If you have problems with the typography pdf, please email me at DianneKNelson at yahoo dot com.

Enjoy!

ALBM diagram

This a diagram that hopefull will explain what I was talking about earlier. This is essentially your pages and the cover of your book. Go ahead and cut and punch and score your papers and your chipboard. I'll give you more directions tonight.

Have fun making stuff!

ALBM next steps

Cut your paper into 6x8 pieces. Cut your chipboard (for the covers) into 6x8 pieces. If you want to, punch holes about an inch and a half in from each outer side (I'll have pictures tomorrow for this, I promise!) You'll have a one inch "gutter" on the edge that you punched the holes on; this makes the actual space you can put pictures and the like 6x7 inches. Use your bone folder and score the fold. You'll need 9 pieces of double sided paper. Twice that number if you are gluing your papers together so that the pretty sides shows. You may want to cut some 1x6 inch spacers (and hole punch them) just in case you need them so your pages don't splay when you bind the book. You'll need 4 pieces for the covers of the book (outside front, inside front, outside back and inside back)

This is probably very confusing with out the pictures. Just trust me. I'll get the pics tomorrow (Thursday) morning for you and it will all be crystal clear!

Keep up the good work!

ALBM suggestion and a statement on how Movies define a generation

ALBM: I used double-sided paper in my book--you don't have to in yours, but be prepared to glue your pages together or to decorate your blank side with rubber stamps or other embellishments.

Now for a funny: The computer-animated "Alvin and the Chipmunks" movie is very popular among the 4 and 5 year olds in my classroom. Overheard today:

"You farted!"

"Nope, that wasn't me"

"Well, I didn't do it"

"Maybe it was a chipmunk"

"No way! Chipmunks aren't real!"

...Um, maybe you need to get outside a bit more kid. Turn off the movie and just go outside.