Love that Bug and other Cricut tales

Just a quick note.

I have been giving courses on the Cricut machines - this is a Basics course that I taught previously, but now I am teaching at different venues.

I taught the class at Cherish the Thought in Port Moody last month, earlier this month, I held another class at Scrap Arts in North Vancouver.

I will be teaching the class again on November 20th at Cherish the Thought - for more information go to Cherish's website for details.

Talking about Cricuts - if you want to get a great deal on all things Cricut - check out my scrapping pal's new business:  Love that Bug.  She has great prices on all cartridges and accesories.  I will also be holding more classes at her home (aka "The Cardmaking/Scrapbooking Factory" - see my previous post).

Maybe I will see you at one of my Cricut classes!

Happy Scrapping,

Brenda

Life is a Roller Coaster - Hang on for the ride!

I just took a look at my blog and realized that it has been six months since my last post.

My crazy roller-coaster of a life has gotten in the way of my hobbies and my joy.....

I have been going through some very challenging times lately and that has definately had a severe impact on my creative side. It has been a struggle to find the creative spark to do the things that bring joy to my life.

I even put aside my scrapbooking for a while - that looking at some of the pictures was just too painful to work with. I am starting to be able to work with them again. Trying to remember that at the time the photos where taken that we were in much happier situation and try to journal with that time frame in mind, rather than the current time frame.

I did the same with pictures of my sister - journalling as if it were the very recent past rather than years before. That way I was able to keep the happiness of the photos intact, rather than overshadowing everything with her illness and subsequent death. That is much more how I would rather remember things - her death was only one small part of her life - not her entire life.

And so for my self-imposed moratorium on scrapbooking, I ventured into the world of cardmaking. I have made cards in the past for the odd birthday, and in the last few years Christmas, but only on a very simple level.

I remember when I was at the Ultimate Scrapbook Retreat last October that I saw some women with a huge pile of markers. They seemed to spend the entire weekend doing nothing but colouring.

At the time it totally puzzled me - now, I liked colouring as well as the next kid, but I found it frustrating, I did not like that you were to only use one colour red to colour the apple - don't you know that apples are not just one colour!! And then I tripped into the world of Copic pens..... I saw a video on YouTube one sleepless night and that was it - I was totally hooked!! Now I know what the draw was for the ladies with the millions of pens (or is that just millions of dollars worth of pens!!)!

And so I started colouring - stamped images at first and then I expanded my search to find 'digital stamps' - otherwise known as line art and found some of the cutest images to colour. One of my faves are the images from Mo Manning at Digital Pencil Too - check it out - I just love them.

I took a couple of classes and got the idea of the Copic Method of colouring.

I end up with huge amount of coloured images - I was colouring at scrapbooking nights, I was colouring watching the TV - and, of course, I needed more and more colours - just having 20 to start with was far too limiting and so I had to have more. Just another three to get the yellow greens I wanted, and then another three to get the lavenders I wanted, and so on and so on. I did draw the line (temporarily at least) for a while - I do have a little of most of the colour families now - so I have some options, but I know it will only be a little longer before I feel the need to add to the collection!

So what to do with all the images that I had coloured??? Along came my little scrapbooking pal, Maria - she and another friend were going to sell cards at some local craft fairs and had accidentially double booked for the same weekend - so they needed more stock. Maria had turned her basement suite into a scrapbooking/cardmaking factory. She and Lil had combined all of their cardmaking/stamping/embossing/paper supplies and had a wonderful place set up to make all the cards you could ever want.

And so I joined them with a crazy week of laughter, a little tears and a whole lotta cards!!! I managed to make 80 cards in the week before the craft shows.

And so, here are some of the cards that I made - some with Mo Manning's images....

As much as I love scrapbooking, I had a great time making the cards too. I don't think that I will ever completely stop doing scrapbooking - I will get back into it, but I have been having a lot of fun making the cards.

So in the end, life is still a roller coaster, but as much as there are ups and down, you can find joy in some of the small things and that will help you find the joy in other parts of your life.

Live life and hope that you find joy - even in the small things.

Happy Scrapping,

Brenda

Scrapping Away at Hatzic Lake

This past weekend I had the chance to attend Scrapping Away's annual retreat at Camp Luther.  This is the fourth time, out of the last five years that I have been able to attend.

Hatzic is one of my very favourite retreats.  It is not at big event, only about 25 people, but Michelle Dixon who is the owner of Scrapping Away, knows how to do a great retreat!  There is plenty of room to scrap and plenty of prizes and give-aways, and the rooms at Camp Luther are very good for a 'camp' type of retreat location.

Beyond all of that, it is the group of people that attends this retreat are some of the best ever.  People that I met four years ago are still some of my best friends to this day.  It is a wonderful group of people that attend this event.

The best part of scrapbooking for me is the people that you meet - I love the craft of scrapbooking and the maintaining of the family history - but the connections you make with fellow scrapbookers is huge bonus to the hobby.

Happy scrapping!

Brenda

Cricut Swarm

Today I had the opportunity to teach a class at Pick of the Patch - a Cricut Basics class.  Eleven people attended the class where they had the opportunity to learn more about this great scrapbooking tool.  It all started at a Friday crop night - one of the regulars mentioned that she had had a Cricut for over a year that she had never even taken out of the box....  And that gave me the idea to do this class....

We had a mix of Cricut Personal Cutter and Expressions - along with my Create.  I taught everyone all about the differences between the three machines and all the features on the machines.

I was preparing of this course by re-reading the manuals to make sure that I had all the correct information to be able to pass along - I found that I learned something myself.  There is a function called Center Point - I finally understood what it was all about.

I had used the circle and oval shapes to makes mats for photos in the past, but always wondered how you would manage to cut out photos or patterned paper with any accuracy.  I could never figure out how you would control where the circle would be cut.  Well, the answer is - use Center Point.  Just position the blade over the very center of the image that you want to cut a round - press the Center Point button, select the appropriate shape and size and press Cut.  It will automatically figure out the position from there.

So, even when you know a lot about something, there is still more that you can learn - one of the best parts of the scrapbooking hobby.

The class was so well received, that I am hoping that I can hold another one in the near future.

So, if you own a Cricut and it is still in the box this is the class for you.  Check with Pick of the Patch to see when the next class will be schedule.

Happy Scrapping!

Brenda

All-Day Crop at Pick of the Patch

Yesterday Pick of the Patch held an all-day scrapbooking event.  It was well attended - not so many that you were sharing a table - but enough to have a nice buzz of noise in the room.  I am all for only "one to a table" with all the paraphenalia that everyone tends to bring to these kinds of events.

As far a productivity goes - it was not my most productive day - but I did manage to finish some layouts that were missing pieces, photos or titles.  That is a good thing as I always like finishing the layouts right away.  I tend to find  that if I am missing a piece of a layout, I mark it to so that I can find it easily, but it can sometimes take months or years to get back to it.  I like to completely finish each page or set of pages as I do them - mark them off on my tally sheet and with a clear conscience, move onto the next layout.

So I cleared up some of the 'incomplete' pages and managed to get a number of new ones done.  So, all it all, it was a good day.

I will also be teaching "Cricut Basics" class at Pick of the Patch in the near future.  If you have a Cricut at home and have never used it or hardly even turned it on - this is the class for you.  Come and find out the basics of this extremely handy scrapbooking tool.  I am on my second machine - I don't know what I would do without my Cricut!  Stay tuned for more information.

I also am planning on doing a follow-up Cricut class after the Basics - "Cartridge Exploration" - using your cartridges to their fullest.

Next all-day crop is February 20th - maybe I will see you there or at my Cricut class....

Happy Scrapping!

Brenda

Milestones and Memories

It is very hard to believe that it is 2010 already.  These years have a way of creeping up on people!

This year has a number of personal milestones for me - a big birthday and also my 20th Anniversary.

The main reason that we scrapbook (beyond the love of paper and collecting 'toys') is to document and preserve the pictures and memories of the years as they go by. 

No where was this more noticable than in a little acrylic album kit that I did last year - it is a little house shaped album with a snow-topped roof.  I started it just after Christmas last year so, it seemed appropriate, to make it about the holidays.  I have made it a point to take a picture of the two boys in front of the fireplace each year - just before taking down the stockings on Christmas morning.  Each individual picture by itself is a memory of that particular Christmas - but put together, year after year, it becomes a document of the growth of the two boys.

With the flip of a couple of pages, you can see the changes in the boys in reference to the fireplace mantle and each other.  When I started - back in 2000 - the youngest was just a little taller than the mantle and they both did not even come half-way up to the large wreath over the fireplace.  Over the years, this has changed.  I am looking forward to putting this year's picture in the album because as of this year, they both almost reach the top of the wreath, but Marcus is now taller than his older brother! This little album is a record of not only Christmas mornings, but the boys as they have gotten older.  It is a summary, if you will, rather than the large family albums that I have normally done.  This little album is special and I bring it out at Christmas time - it has now become part of the decorating of the house at Christmas time.

So, I will be documenting the milestones that come up in 2010, but also remember to document the rest of your lives - the little everyday pieces of it that make up the bulk of life - rather than just the 'high days and holidays'.

Happy Scrapping!

Brenda