Jamie Danford

Scrapper Spotlight!

Let's meet our scrappy pal Deb Evans!

I asked Deb lots of questions so we can get to know her better...ready? Okay, let's go!

Question 1:   How long have you been scrapbooking?

 

It's hard to say "how long" I've been scrapbooking because I've always kind of put photos and things together even when I was little, but I would say I really got into Scrapbooking after I got married (6 years ago).  When I got pregnant with my first child I was working at Frances Meyer (a scrapbook Company), so I was always thinking about Scrapbooking!  I did a pregnancy scrapbook and first year scrapbook for my son and am trying to finish books up for my daughter now.

 

Question 2. How did you get started? (What made you get into the hobby?)

 

My first real "scrapbook" was my Honey Moon book and my Pregnancy book.  I just wanted to put together a memory book with my photos.  I didn't even have a paper trimmer.  I mostly just cut out the photos and used photo corner stickers.  When I got my job at Frances Meyer I was able to learn about all the cute paper, stickers, and scrapbooking tools!

 

Question 3. Do you think you have a scrapping style? (Simple, eclectic, freestyle, whimsy, shabby chic, symmetrical, traditional, etc…)

 

Do I have Style?  I don't know?  I try to just have FUN with it and don't worry about those things.  I use to want to get published really bad and I did get a layout put in magazine, but after that experience I learned that it's too stressful to keep up with it all and I missed just having fun with it.  So now...for me it's all about just enjoying it!

 

Question 4.  What is/are your favorite scrapbooking product(s) at the moment?

 

I love my cutter bee paper trimmer, Zig Pens, and Tombow Mono Multi Glue!

 

Question 5.  What scrap tool can you NOT live without?

 

Herma Tabs...if that's a tool.

 

Question 6.   Do you watch t.v or listen to music while scrapping? If so, what?

 

Most of the time Noggin is on the TV, but sometimes I like to listen to the music on my blog while I scrapbook.

 

Question 7. Do you have a favorite treat/beverage while scrapping? What?

 

It use to be COKE!!  But, I'm trying to lose weight and am drinking diet drinks now.

 

Question 8.   How often do you scrap?

 

Whenever I can do it!  I am trying hard to finish up my daughter's first year book.  She turned a year old this March.

 

Question 9.   What kind of stuff do you scrap most often? (Family, vacations, pets, yourself, etc)

I scrap layouts of my children growing up!

 

And here are some of Deb's favorite layouts...

(I asked her to share a little about each layout for us.)

 

I LOVE this page so much because of the look on my son's face!  He was having so much fun and I think you can see that in the layout.  I also love the orange fish!

This one below is using all Frances Meyer stuff.  I like it because I thought the bees were cute and again because I liked the photo.  I thought it all matched really good with the photo.  FYI:  I took the picture to match the paper because for this layout I was trying to make the Frances Meyer Design Team (I wasn't working there at this time...the company had moved up North).  I was in the top 10, but didn't make the team.

Okay, I love this page below...but I totally copied the idea from a page I saw in a magazine.  I don't do that very often because that takes time and I like to just throw my page together...but I liked the title and the heart..and I had the paper!!

Hey Deb, thanks SOOO much for letting us get to know you, and for sharing these wonderful layouts with us!  If you want to keep up with Deborah, you can email her at [email protected] and she'll invite you to view her blogs for more photography and scrapbooking inspiration.  :)

New blog feature!!

I'm getting geared up for a new uber fun and (hopefully) fabulous feature on my bloggy! Let's call it, "Scrapper Spotlight" okay? Each week, or maybe more than that, we'll see...I'm gonna pick a scrapper pal to interview and spotlight here on the blog. Hopefully we'll even get to have some peeks at their layouts too.  I mean come on, I know you'd probably love to hear someone else's opinions and views rather than my blathering all the time right?

So tomorrow (Thursday) we'll have our first Scrapper Spotlight and meet a new friend.  Sound like fun? Of course it does! 

Now I've got to get in my scraproom and get my stuff ready to sell at A Scrapbook Boutique's yard sale this Saturday (August 2nd from 10am until 2pm.)  Head over if you want some ridiculous bargains, because I'm selling a bunch of my leftover stuff from Savannah Scrapbooking for SUPER cheap!!

"Try it Tuesday 3!"

Is it seriously 2:28am on Tuesday morning? Um...yes.  What the heck am I doing?????  Well, first and foremost, I'm getting my final paper finished up for my Brazil class.  I totally thought it was due Thursday, but oh no...it's due today! (Tuesday!) So seeing as how I hadn't even started, I figured I might better pull a late-nighter. Besides, Miss Priss is spending the night out and I've already done my 'wifely' duties, so what the heck. 

Second on my list o' importance for this early morning is of course my third installment of "Try it Tuesday!"  This one's TOTALLY my favorite so far.  Not that I LOVE the finished layout, but the whole thing is just totally me. You'll see what I mean.  I had to put it into two videos because Youtube will only let me upload stuff under ten minutes long and this puppy's over twelve minutes (lots of rambling, I'm afraid.) So you'll see the process in the first video and then the final result in the second. 

I found this GREAT masking technique by Emily Falconbridge  (thanks Diane!) and it's a super neato, super easy way to get a cool look.

 Okay, so this video is kinda silly, lots of stuff that should've been edited out, but heck what fun is editing right? Okay...

 Are you ready?  Here goes...

Part One...

and Part Two...aren't you excited?!??!

Here's the layout...

Totally fun, totally cool technique, don't you wanna run to your desk/table/counter, sweep the pile of crap off to the side and try it? So go PLAY! (Let me know how it goes okay?) 

Supreme deliciousness...

You know that sound people make (uh, like Big Dave) when they're sloppin' through an amazingly yummy rack of barbecue ribs? Kinda like, "slop, smack, chomp, slosh, muffle, hmmm, slop" yeah, that. Well that's what I just sounded like while gorging myself on the Halloween mini album awesomeness over on Roxann's Blog. 

 How in the world she has the time and patience for projects like this escapes me...seriously Roxann, you are ridiculous! (In a good way of course. ) 

Go check it out...the details are...well...stunning.  Sigh...I'm jealous.  :)

Road rage and the Redneck...a Documentary.

Ok...I've been so bogged down with school and scrapping that I've apparently repressed the whole 'road trip' part of the family reunion two weeks ago. I guess it's taken me this long to actually come to terms with the ordeal and be able to talk about it...I think I have post traumatic stress disorder. Where's Dr. Phil when you need him right?

But now, as I bask in the feline accompanied afterglow of the conclusion to my final project, I feel the need to reflect...to purge the demons...to spill the ol' proverbial beans about what I have chosen to call "The Road Rage Road Trip from that there Eternal Blazin' Pit o' Hellfire."  Shall we talk? Yes...let's...

See, here's the thing...My husband, the love of my life, my very own mister happy pants, happens to be a tried and true, down to the core REDNECK.  You know him...the guy who has a wad o' tobaccy (dip) in his lip 24/7 (hence my no kissing policy)...the guy who says, "couldn't do that again if I tried" approximately 32 times a day...Mister camo-everything.  Yes, that guy.

He's my husband.  Why? Well, I can't tell you that because this is a PG-13 rated blog, and his mother reads it. (He's quite talented...let's leave it at that...and he does take out the Kodiak for some things.)

Seriously, this boy is my soulmate...someone who stole my heart seventeen years ago, and still makes me get all swishy inside when he gives me that look. So I embrace his redneckedness and go with the flow...most rednecks I know (Big Dave included) love their Mama's, treat their wives like princesses (hence my spoiledness) and are fabulous fathers (Miss Priss is lucky.) But there's one problem I find with these redneckedly types that makes me nuts, and Big Dave falls right into it...they speak their mind...alot, and good Lord do they! Which leads me to this post.

My precious husband has a major fault...he is a ROAD RAGE maniac! And usually in our quick jaunts around town I am not that freaked out by it because we're only in the car for fifteen or twenty minutes at a time right? But the trip to Tennessee?  Oh goodness gracious! Try fifteen HOURS in the car with the screaming road rager...NOT fun.

He looks pissed doesn't he? Well...that's because HE WAS!! He screamed and yelled, cursed and muttered for a thousand freakin' miles. Honestly there were times I thought he was gonna put voodoo hexes on the poor souls not using cruise control...how dare they!?!?!?!

So if you were on the highway between Georgia and Tennessee during the weekend of July 10th through 13th and happened to see a VERY angry man leaning out his driver's side window shaking a fist and screaming exclamatory remarks while barreling down the road at approximately 85 miles per hour,  please accept my apology.  It was probably my husband. He knows not what he does. There's no controlling the behavior...it's like trying to litter box train a giant aardvark...ain't gonna happen.

I tried to ignore it...

...I read...

...I dozed...

...I saw the sights...

...I tried to ignore it...

...But in the end, all I could do was sit and plot my revenge...which happens to be this post.  I plotted and knew that I would eventually write this tell all documentary of drama and intrigue...this expose about the rage driven madness of my redneck boytoy. 

And it made me smile...alot.

:)

I love you David!

OMG Toni, check THIS out!!!!!!!

Okay, so my pal Toni and I were just commiserating with each other via email about the craziness of trying to cut corners with the FABULOUSLY FABULOUS Threading Water Punch from Fiskars...seriously my new favorite tool.  Well, then when I was perusing Two Peas a few minutes ago I found THIS and it has changed my life. How happy am I right now???? I cannot even put it into words. Thank you thank you THANK YOU random Youtube person! You are my new hero!!!!!!

Two totally fun layouts...

Kristine, Sid and I headed up to ASB last night to try out their Friday night crop...we had a lot of laughs (of course, you know we're gonna laugh) and managed to get a couple of layouts done...(well at least, Kristine and I did eh hem.)  So let's have a look shall we?

This first one's full of Prima oldies...the chipboard titles, photo corners, flowers and the black background paper all come from one of their IOD lines.  The die cut tan/pink paper and flower brads are Making Memories.  Well, and of course I had to throw some bling on there...sigh...love bling...

It's a fun page that captures this little adventure I'm on.  You know, the stepping out on faith and going back to school adventure...yeah, that one.  Kristine took these photos of me at school one day when I forced her to sit in the car in a non-student approved parking space so I could run in and turn in a history paper without having to walk too far...just in case you're wondering why I have these photos.  Apparently she felt the moment needed to be documented?

And this little cutie makes me warm and fuzzy all over.  Well not literally fuzzy, you know I try to keep myself well-groomed.

...And speaking of fuzzy, these little felt flowers from Queen and Co. are sneezilicious! ;) I think I'm allergic to them or something because they had me sniffling the whole time I was playing with 'em lol.  I'm so happy I finally got to use these adorable little owls from Sassafras Lass...love their uber cute stuff don't you?

Alrighty, I'm off to work on my final projects that are due this week...A full week's unit on letter writing for an 8th grade language arts class and an essay on poverty in 1950's Brazil. Sounds like fun doesn't it?

Scanning and Stitching 101

One of the questions I get asked the most is how do I get my layouts onto my blog...do I photograph them or scan them? So I thought I'd give you an inside look at my process...scary huh?

I scan my layouts on my HP Photosmart 2575 All-in-One Printer/Scanner/Copier.  It's not a wide format scanner...just a plain ol' cheapo letter sized one for around a hundred bucks.  The software comes with the machine, and I'm guessing that if you have an Epson or something other than an HP, your software will have a panoramic/stitching feature on it too.

Since the scanner bed is only approx. 9x11.5, I have to scan my 12x12 layouts in two sections...left side and right side.  This is a two page layout...a total of four scans to get a two page layout...

After scanning each side, I go to the "Create" Menu and choose "Panoramas"

It looks like this...

 

 I drag the halves of my layout from the little holding tank at the bottom and put them in the boxes in the order they're supposed to go in.

Then I hit the "next" button and get something like this...

It's usually kind of screwy lookin' so I have to click the "align" button and drag the images into a straight line...

After that, I hit "Auto Crop" and it takes off all the rough edges.  I save it in a low quality file so it doesn't eat up a lot of space and I'm DONE!  It takes about 3 minutes per layout...not too bad.  Now, since my scanner's a bit smaller than 12 inches I lose about a quarter inch on the top and bottom, so if there's any detail there it might get lost...no biggie.

Even if you don't blog or post your layouts in online galleries, you may want to do something else fun like scan in you layout, reduce the size to 6x6 or 8x8 and print it out on nice quality photo paper. You can frame some of your favorites for wall decor or how 'bout throwing them into an album and sending it to Grandma? Great idea!! Okay, go have fun!

Try it Tuesday 2 Playing with Dimensional Adhesive!

Okie dokie, here's another riveting segment of "Try it Tuesday!" The stuff I'm using is called Diamond Glaze by Judikins, another product like it is Crystal Laquer by Sakura.  It's super easy to make your own three dimensional embellies...as long as you're patient enough to let it dry.  Here we go...

Zip...zing...zooom!

Hi kittens! I'm just buzzin' in for two seconds to throw another layout on here.  Did this one last night while Kristine cleaned her half of the scraproom... I know, I know....a real friend would've pitched in and helped right? But you know my motto..."Why help when you can sit on your bum and watch." (Or scrap!)  So that's what I did.  Aren't you glad I'm not your best friend?

This super cute patterned paper by Reminisce was begging me to use it...so I did, because that's how I roll.  I'm a listener. And heck, why not throw some PaperHouse die cuts on there as well?  Too fun!

Alrighty, off to do more homework...don't forget, tomorrow is another fun and exciting "Try It Tuesday" video!