The English Geek

Gratitude Gallery

April's Write. Click. Scrapbook. theme was gratitude. I made this layout for the gallery:

It's about Kaleb's friendship with our across-the-street neighbor. I love this family so much! (Does that sound weird to say about your neighbor?) They all do different things that make our lives easier, and they get our sense of humor!

And, dare I confess: I love the way this layout turned out. I usually start working on a layout with some sort of idea in my head, but most of the time the vision and the reality don't coincide. That's because I usually underestimate the space the different elements will take up, or I write more than I thought so I have to switch things around. (Usually, of course, it's that I wrote more than I expected!) This one, however, came out nearly exactly the way I had imagined it. I love it when that happens!

If you're of the scrappy persuasion, click HERE to see the rest of the gallery, and then check back on Saturday for my write. post.

Trek Photo Album: a little teaser

 finally got some of my photos from trek scrapbooked! Rather than just making a layout, I made a mini (8x8) album. Here's a teaser:

Go HERE to see more details!

I made this album for Jake. One day soon I'm going to make one for Haley and one for myself as well.

One thing that this album reminded me: big projects come together so much faster when the journaling is already written! I just had to tweak a little bit, and proofread, and then the journaling was done.

One thing that this album taught me: how to print small, double-sided booklets full of journaling without using Publisher. (As I don't have Publisher on my computer at home!) It's a little tricky and involves some cutting and pasting and some strange arranging of pages, but it can be done!

Another thing this album reminded me: I really, really loved going on trek, despite the cold.

And: despite my insecurities over being the historian, I did get some good photos.

Oh! And it also taught me: 6x8 prints are an awesome size!

Anyway. If you also went on trek, or know someone who did, you might hop over and see the rest of the album!

WCS Mini Gallery

(Thank you for your kind comments about yesterday's post. I'm still processing. I imagine I will continue processing for awhile.)

This month's WCS gallery is up and it's full of mini albums. For my contribution, I finally got around to making an album with my hiking boot photos.

Ever since the fall of 2008, I've kept the tradition of the Hiking Boot Photo.

On the top of every peak, I make all the people who are with us pause for a photo of all our hiking boots.

Sometimes I forget and then I have to improvise. Like, this counts as a hiking-boot photo, right?

As does this one, which only accidentally got my boot in it:

I am happy to say that I now have all of my hiking-boot photos from the past 3 1/2 years in this little 5x7 album. It's nearly full, though, so I need to get another one for our next years of hiking adventures. I kept the mini totally simple: the 5x7 photo on the left with the location of the hike added before I had the pictures printed, and a journaling card on the right with the details:

If you're of the scrappy persuasion, you should go and see the other minis HERE!

Write Now!

Next Thursday, on August 4, my Big Picture Classes workshop, Write Now!, starts up again. This class is perhaps my favorite class I teach at Big Picture, and here's why:

I think all scrapbook layouts deserve some journaling. That isn't an altogether popular point of view; for plenty of scrapbookers, the journaling part is sheer, frustrating drudgery. Or something that just never gets done but then makes the guilt flare up. That's one reason I wrote the class: to help scrappers feel confident about their journaling and to enjoy the process.

But I also think that if you're going to write some journaling—or any sort of writing, really; you could easily apply the techniques in Write Now! to your blog or your private journal or that personal memoir you've always wanted to write—you might as well write it well. The cool thing is that it doesn't have to take a long time to write it well. That's why the class's subtitle is "A Speedy Journaling Workshop." It teaches you how to write well and how to do it quickly.

Also, it's my favorite class because I deep-down, to-the-tips-of-my (blistered and toenail-less) toes believe that everyone can write well. Yeah, sure: not all of us can write good novels, or poems, or short stories. Not everyone has it in themselves to be the next great and famous Writer. But we can all write about our lives and our kids' and friends' and pets' lives with authenticity and significance. It takes a combination of things: knowledge (the techniques that writers use to make their texts come alive), confidence (which comes with practice and with never getting out of the habit of practice), and desire. Write Now! will help you with the first two. The desire part has to come from you.

Here's what I mean by that. This morning, I did notwant to do my scheduled 7 mile run. My back hurt and my right foot has been having this weird, inexplicable pain. (I even had an x-ray to make sure it wasn't a stress fracture. Which it isn't.) But when Kaleb asked me why I wasn't in my running clothes, I knew I had to put them on and put in my miles anyway. After I'd finished, when I was walking up my driveway, one of my neighbors stopped to chat with me. She told me she admired me for running, and that she wasn't sure how I did it, because running is hard for her to do. Her comments added to my post-run exhilaration, but I also had to chuckle a bit, thinking about how hard it was for me just to put my shoes on and get out the door.

Writing good journaling is exactly like that. It seems like it's too hard to do and that only a few people can do it. But if you do it every day, it becomes easier. With running you learn stuff like pacing and building endurance and avoiding injuries and maintaining glycogen levels and stretching just the right amount; those things help the seemingly-hard process of running become easier. With writing, you learn stuff like sentence structure and word choice and organization, silencing your internal editor and being brave on paper and filtering out the fluff to get to the real; those things help the seemingly-magical process of writing strong journaling become easier.

Doesn't matter, honestly, if you love journaling or hate it, this class will help you. If you have the desire, everything else will start making perfect sense! And, as a happy little perk, there's a give away on Thursday, July 28 at write. click. scrapbook. for a free seat in the class. Click over and leave a comment to enter!

on Weddings

I confess: I didn’t love my wedding day. Something like that is sort of strange to live with, like the fact that no one signed my Junior yearbook (because I even sluffed the yearbook signing day!), or that I didn’t go to prom, or that I put "Mr." instead of "Dr." next to Kendell’s dad’s name on my wedding invitation. It feels a little pathetic, wandering through life without those contemporary milestones, but it’s still the truth. My wedding day wasn't the most blissful day of my life.

My lack of bliss had nothing to do with my marriage, or even with the festivities. My sisters and mom worked hard to make sure I had delicious food at my reception: tiny chicken salad and crab salad sandwiches, vegetables and dip, hand-made mint chocolate temples, individual cherry cheesecakes. It was all very elegant, in an old house that had been renovated as a reception center. I loved my dress and veil (even though now I look at them and shudder a little bit, they look so dated). I think my bridesmaid dresses were gorgeous (although, Chris and Becky might disagree). The flowers were perfect.

No, the uncomfortable feeling I get when I remember my wedding day doesn’t come from the details. It doesn’t come from the fact that we got married in February when I really wanted a May wedding. It snowed that day, one of those bleary, miserly winter days, so all of my photos at the temple are ugly and grey. It doesn’t even come from the fact that the combination of winter weather and a Jazz basketball game on the same night meant that quite a few of our more casual friends didn’t come. No—it comes from the fact that I was 19, and standing in that gorgeous antique house in my beloved wedding gown was deeply, deeply unpleasant. I didn’t enjoy being the center of attention like that. And, at 19, I didn’t know myself well enough to know just how uncomfortable and unpleasant I’d feel in that position.

So when I received the assignment to make a wedding layout for this month’s WCS gallery, I was more than a little anxious. I haven’t scrapped my wedding photos. I have absolutely zero desire to scrapbook my wedding photos. In fact, they are somewhere at my mom’s house, which really means I might never see them again. So, instead of making a layout about my own wedding, I made one about Haley from a wedding we went to six years ago, my niece Lyndsay's:

　

I wrote the journaling based on some thoughts I wrote in my journal that night. They focus on my hopes for Haley when she gets married: that she, too, will love the details, but also that she’ll get it right, somehow. More right than I did, so that when she looks back she only remembers being happy instead of mortified like I felt.

What about you? Did everything about your wedding day make you happy? Have you scrapped your photos? If you want some ideas, you should visit the gallery—there are some awesome ones there!

my Write. Click. Scrapbook Give Away

Today at  Write. Click. Scrapbook. is a great big give away day. Many of the WCS designers have put together different gifts, all of them scrapbook related. So! If you're of the scrapping persuasion, you should check it out. If you're not, well, maybe today is the time to start!

For my contribution, I decided to finally do something with one of my collections: word-based fabrics. It is a serious weakness of mine that when I see a fabric with words, I tend to want to buy it and make it into a scrapbooking embellishment. When you use fabric on your layouts, it does take a bit more effort than using, say, an alphabet sticker set. But the product possibilities effectively double. (I can't tell you how often I've thought "someone should make this patterned paper into fabric" or the other way around.) Plus, it's just so lovely. And as I am consistently drawn to word-based anything, well, it's a rare wordy fabric I can resist purchasing! I put some of my collection to use in a few textual fabric embellishments.

First, some tips for scrapping with fabric:

• fabric is sold by the inch in increments based on a yard. Or you can buy it in fat quarters, which are 18"x22" inches; some fabric stores will also sell fat eights (11"x18"). When I'm buying a fabric I know I'll only use for a layout, I buy 1/8 of a yard, which is 4.5" tall x 43-45" wide. If the pattern of words repeats, make sure to buy enough that you get at least one repetition. Obviously there will be some leftovers when you're finished. Perhaps one day I will make a quilt with all my scrapping-fabric leftovers!
• unless you're sewing your embellishment directly onto your layout, back it with some card stock. Then use your regular, preferred adhesive to stick it down.
• alternately, it is perfectly ok to stitch it down on your layout. In fact, it is awesome. You can even, if you're so inclined, cover an entire 12x12 sheet of card stock with fabric. Plus, there's just something about the back side of a stitched-upon layout that makes me happy. Is that weird? 
• keep a dedicated sewing-on-paper needle. Paper dulls needles faster than fabric does, so keep your nice, sharp needles for your fabric creations.
• if you have one, use your walking foot. It moves the paper/fabric combo through the machine much easier than a regular foot. Warning: A quarter-inch presser foot will leave a faint scratched line where the 1/4" guide touches your cardstock, or, at least, mine does.
• iron your fabric. I repeat: iron it! I know. I hate ironing too. But it does make a difference to the piece's outcome.
• the way you cut your fabric also influences the end result. A rotary cutter produces a cleaner edge (obviously, straighter, too!) than scissors do. I like the more ragged edge that comes from a fabric cut with scissors, but you should do what makes you happy.
• do some practice stitches before committing to whatever paper-and-fabric creation you're making. The tension will need to be adjusted a bit, depending on the texture of the fabric and the thickness of the card stock or paper you're sewing on.
• decorative stitches work almost as well on paper as they do on fabric. Keep in mind, though, that the holes punched by the needle don't "heal" on paper like they do on fabric. If your stitches are too small or close together, the needle holes can turn into perforations instead.
• sew slowly. Since paper doesn't heal, you can't fix your mistakes by ripping the stitches out. Trust me: just go slow!
• keep in mind my cardinal rule of sewing: fabric is a flexible medium. You'll rarely get exactly, completely square and straight fabric embellishments. That's OK. the texture of fabric invites imperfection if you let it. Imperfection just reinforces the fact that you made this, not a machine.

Now for the give away:

1. The All-About-Me Embellishment:

 
(about 2 1/2" tall x 5" wide)

2. the baby boy tag:

 
(about 4.5" x 7")

3. the Baby Girl Embellishment:

 
(about 6x6)

4. the Christmas Tag:

 
(5" x 2.5") (made with some left over bits from this quilt)

5. The Cute Little Chick Set

 
(9"x5") (I know...cue bird-induced squee!)

6. the Hiking Set

 
(8"x 5.5")

If you're interested in entering the give away, go to today's WCSpost and leave a comment. (You can, of course, leave a comment on my blog about the absolutely stunning quality of my work, tee hee, but that won't get you entered into the drawing.) You might just win nothing (and we all know that if *I* entered that would be the case, as I never win anything), but you could win my textual fabric embellishments. Or any of the other cool stuff that's up for grabs.

And let me know if you win!

If You are of the Scrapbooking Persuasion...

then you should come help us celebrate:

 

(My assigned letter was P. I bought a cute little tiny cake with a green frosting P on it, but when I held it up for a picture, all the frosting slid off, right into my lap, before Haley—my official photographer—could snap the picture. So I used a fridge magnet instead, but I'm still a little annoyed that my tiny cake idea didn't work out.)

This week at Write Click Scrapbook we're celebrating our third birthday. There is, of course, the new June Gallery, where we all worked within the concept of being inspired by something on the WCS site. My layout

 
was inspired by a recent week about using fabric on your layouts. I keep lots of fabric bits and pieces with the intention of using them on a layout, but then I forget, or I don't want to get my sewing machine out. Need to get over that! There's also a new design this month, and this week there are two days of product give aways, today and tomorrow.

I've been with this group for a year, so it's a sort of anniversary for me, too. I'm consistently inspired by the other team members, and not just by their WCS contributions, but by their ability to be a presence in the scrapbooking world. They manage to influence other people, which isn't something I'm good at. I love that about them!

Not only do I get to contribute, I'm also a recipient of that inspiration. My scrapbooking has become stronger and more focused, closer to what I really want to do with my hobby of choice—which is, of course, to record the stuff I don't want to forget. The stuff I am, frankly, terrified of forgetting. That's the simple purpose of WCS: Getting your memories down where they're not forgotten. It's a place that helps you remember that the memories matter most, and everything else? Well, that's just the icing on the cake.

(Of course, it's the sort of icing that doesn't slide off into your lap, possibly staining your favorite pair of jeans and forcing you to rethink your clothes for the day. Totally not that kind of icing!)

blogging elsewhere

So, this week I haven't been blogging much here, but I HAVE been blogging a lot elsewhere: I've been hosting the write. click. scrapbook. blog.

For the past two weeks or so, I've been carting around a half-written blog about scrapbooking. I'm still not ready to write it, but I think that's mostly because I've been writing so much on WCS about a scrapbooking topic that's near & dear to my heart. Namely: using your stuff.

Because seriously, people, I have a lot of scrapbook stuff.

Two Fridays ago, Becky (along with my niece Kayci and my other sister Suzette) just happened to stop by my house. Now, I only rarely have my house "company clean" because really, I only rarely have company. I guess I'm just not the sort of person who has friends dropping by all the time. And my house was in its usual cluttered-yet-clean-underneath disarray.

Except for my scrapbooking room, which looked a tiny tsunami of scrapping supplies had been unleashed. I was just wrapping up the prep on my Write Now class, and I'd been so consumed with making layouts that putting stuff away just seemed pointless. Why file it all when then I'd just have to flip through all my drawers to figure out where the thing I needed next had been stashed? It was much easier to just pile up all the stuff I was using on the floor.

I think Becky was shocked at my mess. And trust me: she's seen lots of my messes!

But here's the thing. All of that mess? It's just proof. I'm consciously striving not to horde. Not to see my supplies as sacred, untouchable items just waiting for the "perfect" layout. Instead, I've decided every layout is the perfect layout. Whatever I'm working on right now is deserving of whatever supply I want to use. Even if I use up an entire package of rub-ons or letter stickers or whatever. I've moved that product out of my collection and into my albums. Which really is where it belongs!

And honestly. This post isn't the one I want to write about scrapbooking. The WCS posts aren't the one that's still in my head, either. Maybe next week! But I hope you'll click on over and read my thoughts there, anyway. Just because I want  you (if you're a scrapper) to make layouts with your stuff, too! And, if you're  not, to maybe get inspired to become one. Or to use the horde of craft supplies I know you do have, be they fabric or cross stitching or knitting or tole painting or whatever.

Yeah, it's messy. It might just annoy your husband and shock your sister. But somewhere in that mess comes happiness: stories are getting matched up with words. And I know not everyone gets why that makes me happy. (In fact, I don't know if anyone I'm skin friends with really knows how obsessed I am with scrapping!) But it does—make me happy. It brings me a great sense of peace. It lets me relive good moments. If I get it down, the words, the stories, the photos, then, like Dad said, if I ever do forget like he has, someone else can read it and remember.

And there's value in that to me!

March Write Click Scrapbook gallery

Before I started using a digital camera, I was very methodical with my scrapbooking approach. I'd map out a section of an album so I knew which layout would go on the left, which would go on the right, and which would be a double page. This was a throwback to my Creative Memories days, when you HAD to be methodical or the fronts & backs of the layouts wouldn't fall in the right spots. I'd put photos for the next 15-20 layouts into old sheet protectors in a binder, and then I'd just work on whatever pictures came next.

When I got my first digital camera (a horrid little thing...I have nine entire months of awful photos that I still regret), I let go of my system. I just started scrapping whatever photos felt the most important or inspiring. I also started trying to do event photos (like birthdays and holidays) within three months of the event. (I am not always successful at this!) At least once a quarter I do some sort of Life Right Now layout about each of my kids (and sometimes me, too). I keep my finished layouts in a drawer until the drawer is full, and then I spend an hour or two rearranging layouts into the right albums.

I'm not entirely convinced that my old, methodical approach was wrong, nor is my current approach exactly right. One thing that I love is how, when you work in a random order and then arrange the layouts chronologically, the techniques and products get spread out through time, instead of all clumped together. I like revisiting different moments just on the whim of what I want to revisit right now. I sometimes get a little bit panicky, though, thinking I am missing things. I'd like all of our stories and photos to be together on layouts. But then I remember: I've written down almost everything. Even if it's twenty years later, I can always go back to the photos I've not yet scrapped because I can also go back in my journals and blog to find what I wanted to say about those photos.

This month's Write Click Scrapbook gallery is about getting over procrastination and working on the layouts or projects you've only half-way finished. I decided to tackle the photos of Jakey that I still had in that old binder from my old process. These were pictures taken in 2001 and 2002. It felt so completely strange to be working with these older pictures. I am so different from the person I was when I took them. My kids are so different. When I took those pictures, I couldn't see yet what sort of people they would be. I can see it more clearly now. Looking back reinforces what I got right and highlights the surprises.

Even though I only shared one layout, 
(I know! look how little Jake was! And Emily was still young and healthy.) I ended up making six, and I have one last little-Jakey photo grouping to scrap. But I feel inspired, now, to work those old photos back into my process. I loved those days when my kids were still little. I need to get the photos out of the envelopes and into the albums so I can relive the days more often.

What is your scrapbooking process?

Run Like a Girl

This month's Write Click Scrapbook gallery is up! We all made mini albums, and holy cow—there is some CUTE stuff on there. Set aside a half hour and be seriously inspired.

For my mini, I put together a little theme album I've been wanting to do for years: a place to record my races. Even though it's an album about running (which is a sweaty, tough thing to do, right?) I went with a girly feel, using my favorite color combination (pink and black). Here's the cover:

 

On the inside, I've got spots for 5ks, 10ks, half marathons (by far the thickest section!), marathon (for the glorious day when I finally accomplish one), and then miscellaneous distances (this is where, for example, Ragnar will go). You can see the rest of the album on the WCS site. (Well, not ALL of the pages, but an idea!)

I made the album simple by creating templates in my word processor. All I have to do, the next time I run a race, is open the templates, add my journaling and stats, print the photo, and stick everything down. It took me awhile to round up all my race photos and bibs (and, sadness, I couldn't find all of the bibs), but now that it's all assembled, it will be easy to maintain. Happiness! It's great to cross this project off of my perpetual scrapbooking to-do list!