Scrapping history

I joined an online group on the Internet a few months back when I started subscribing to a monthly card kit from Studio Calico. The majority of the members of this community were scrap book enthusiasts, most subscribed to the monthly Scrapbooking Kit and/or the Project Life Monthly kit. The gallery which houses all the projects created by the very talented subscribers are mostly the scrapper variety and periodically us card makers pop up too.

Studio Calico got its start in Scrapbooking, the monthly card kit came much later this the reason we exist in the minority. Having never been a scrapper I continued with card making for several months, I also became interested in mini book making but books are not for cards, they are for scrapping. so I tried my hand at scrapping.

it is difficult to scrap without photos and I am not a photographer, I never remember to take my camera out and I would even less often print a photo. In this media, it is pretty much a requirement.. so I in order to pursue scrapping I had to start thinking photography too. is this too much to take on?

In a moment of weekness during the 10 days of Christmas sale I subscribed (risk free, noshipping) to the scrapbooking kit in addition to my card kit. I wanted it mostly for the 12x12 papers that came with it. My first kit arrived last week, it is still in its box and I am sure the January kit will show up on my doorstep in a few days. how to begin?

CHALLENGES! That is the best place to start. Last week one of the subscribers placed a challenge on us to create a layout about an object. I have very few people photos anyway so an object is doable.

I chose to create a layout about my new prescription eye glasses, I took a few photos of the bazillion glasses laying around the house and a couple of the new ones. I printed the photos on my new air printer..wow, excellent quality! I "journaled" the little write up, printed some corresponding paper and an eye test and threw a little ephemera here and there.

I titled my first challenge of the new year "OIC" - a play on words (oh I See) arh arh and called it Optical Impairment Correction. The journaling told a story about why.

 

2015 will bring lots more projects and challenges. I will be back in a few days to share some others.

 

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Fabric cutter

Several months ago, soon after I got my silhouette cameo, I invested in a special fabric cutter blade. Actually, the blade is the same as the paper cutter except the plastic covering is blue. Just like I would never allow my sewing scissors near paper, the blue cutting blade is Only for fabric.

Today I broke the little blue cutter out of its packaging and used it. There is a new grand child due next month and two months ago I bought fabric to make this little addition a quilt. Other projects kept getting priority so the fabric stayed in its bag in the closet until today. No one knows if the baby is a boy or a girl including the Mom who specifically wanted to keep it a secret. Her rationale was that there are so few surprises in life, she wanted this one to be hers.

Anyway, she calls this child Baby Booth (its last name) and has decorated the room in greys and beiges. There is no animal theme, no color, just boring baby beige. So the quilt I am making is beige, grey, ecru, eggshell and white. Are there any other words that describe beige? No animals, just clouds, grey fields and snowy beige skies.

 

 

That is ok, it will be very functional. Maybe the baby's first birthday will be in color.

Thanks for stopping by!

 

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Thumbnail sketches

You are never too old to learn. I have been considering going back to school for sometime. This semester I enrolled in a Composition and Design class at the local college. I enjoy art and I especially aspire to improve.

Our last homework assignment was to use a single image to create three different and distinct drawings. The objective of using thumbnail sketches allows you to quickly create a practice design before forging ahead on a major art initiative. It avoids the possibility of finding out too late you don't like the image and you have wasted time and product on a throw-away.

For my class I chose several photos from our vacation trips in 2013 and narrowed the search to this one:

This is a little town called Perkinsville in Arizona that was the end of our northbound journey aboard the Verde Valley railway. Since my maiden name is Perkins I found the little ghost town quite fitting. Using a view finder I selected three views.

I loved the look of this tree and the fence line, it made an excellent composition of lights and darks.

Secondly I chose the foreground as the roof, vehicle and field all had colors of reds that helped with eye movement.

My last image honed in on the high horizon of the bluff and s composition of the tree line.

 

Each of my three thumbnails were sketched in pencil and shaded with distress ink. I believe anyone of them would make a lovely painting should I decide to take the next step.

 

But what media should I create it with? Guess I will have to take another class before I decide.

Thanks for stopping by.

 

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