Scrap Camp

Only two days to go and my weekend away scrappin' is approaching fast.  Unfortunately I haven't been more organised early enough to get the preparations done in advance.  I am thankful today is a public holiday so I can really get into finishing off my preparations.

At this camp I am planning on creating two 8 inch albums to give as Christmas presents.  These albums involving the second primary school where their enrollment changed in term four, 2009.  Consider Rachel only been here for three years now, the school sure had alot of activities on involving sport, fund raising and curriculum.

As for normal meets I had only one workshop and one casual meet attended this month as there was school holidays for two weeks.  Workshops and casual meets should be back to normal in May,

Scrap updates

March was a busy month attending to four workshops at my consultant's house.  Most of the layout ideas have been quite simple to do and this time I was working on the yearly diary albums.  I gone back to the early 21st century years and trying to catch up. The problem of scrapbooking you never seem to catch up as we intend to continue to take more photos of our family at home or at events, holidays, etc, etc.

In 18 days I will be away on attending to another scrap camp for the weekend.  It will be held at the same venue where we normally go.  I heard there is about 20-25 ladies going in our group and I think the conference centre will be busy as there might be other groups scrapping there on the same weekend. I dream of going to a scrap camp for a week but I can't see that one happening in my lifetime.

Once school resumes next week for term two I will be busy for two weeks on getting my page layouts ready to work on that weekend.  I am planning on starting another mini album or two to give for Christmas presents.

What's your latest craft projects?  Feel free to share what you have been up to this year.

Family photo tips

Being a long Easter weekend, most of us intend to spend time with our families and probably take alot of family photos at their destination spot.  So I thought I post some family photo tips to help you take better and more natural photos with your family in the holiday pose mode.  And remember: photos are worth a lifetime of memories.

Pick a Family-Friendly Location

Before you gather everyone who needs to be in your family photograph, choose a location. Natural lighting and plenty of space to pose large groups makes heading outdoors a good choice -- just make sure the weather will cooperate

Select a Simple Background for Your Family Photo

Remember: Simple is better when it comes to family photos. Don't go overboard with holiday decorations or props. Instead, keep the focus on the family with a simple background.

Adjust Lighting to Flatter Your Family

No one wants a family photo in which everyone is squinting or poorly lit. Have your subjects face away from the sun, and try to position family members so that the light source is behind or slightly to the side and meter your shot off their faces, not the area around them.

Take Photos from a New Angle

Stand on a chair or stepladder to take photos looking down on a group. They'll look up to see you, and you'll capture their faces at a flattering angle.

Think Candid Family Photos

One trick to boosting your family photo is to make it look natural. Position your family members in a non-traditional pose, or let them do what's comfortable. Family photos don't have to be stuffy, so remember to have fun!

Arrange Family Members on Different Levels

When posing your subjects, make sure their eyes are on different levels. This creates a more dynamic family photo.

Encourage Interaction between Family Members

Not everyone needs to be sitting nicely for it to be a good family photo. Some of the best shots capture interaction -- such as nudges or arms over the shoulder. This helps the photo from feeling too staged.

Use Light from Windows in Family Photos

Indoor family photos also get a boost from natural light. If you have a large window position your group nears it. The window doesn't need to be in the shot to reap the lighting benefits.

Pose Your Family

Ask family members to put their arms around the person next to them -- this brings everyone closer together and creates a sense of family unity.

Work with Natural Light in Holiday Photos

Natural light -- not family's temperament -- determines the best time of day to take family photos. The light is best in the early morning or in the late afternoon, just before the sun sets.

Take Family Photos before the Holiday Season

Plan ahead and schedule your family photo session early in the year. This way, if the weather -- or a certain family member -- doesn't cooperate, you have time to reschedule the shoot.

Fill the Frame with Family

Get up close and personal. The best family photos fill the frame with people, eliminating distracting backgrounds.

Coordinate Family Members' Clothing

Before photo day arrives, pick out clothes in coordinating colours. If your shot includes extended family -- whose outfits you can't pick out for them -- give them a colour scheme and ask that they not wear busy patterns.

Photograph Individual Family Members

If you can't get your entire family in one place to take a photo for your annual holiday card, don't worry. Instead, snap shots of individual members and design a card in image-editing software.

Help Family Members Relax

The best family photos are taken when everyone is relaxed. Take a silly shot in which everyone makes funny faces, and then keep snapping after they’re done – you’ll get completely natural smiles.

Keep the Attention of Small Children for Better Holiday Photos

If your family photo includes small children, have another child stand near the photographer to help keep your kids' attention. Just be sure the entertainer is on the same level as your photographer or you'll get photos in which eyes aren't looking at the camera.

Distract Camera-Phobic Family Members

If some family members are photo-phobic, help them to relax by asking them to interact with another family member.

Take Family Photos all Year

Take the pressure off yourself to snap the perfect family photo just for use on a holiday card; instead, use a favorite photo from the year. Take photos of your family -- and be sure to get in a few shots, too! -- when you're on vacation or a fun outing.

Convert Holiday Family Photos to Black-And-White

For a family photo that stands the test of time, choose outfits that don't clash and are more classic than trendy. If you've already taken your photo and just realized the outfits don't go together, convert the photo to black-and-white.

Book of Me

Another month has passed us and I enjoy my scrap meets and workshops.  Most Tuesdays I had my casual meets at the craft store and attended to three workshops through my CM consultant. I have been going to her workshops for about 7-8 years now.

This year she decided to introduce a new workshop once a month on Wednesday nights.  About a dozen ladies are attending to this workshop, known as the BOOK OF ME album.  It will be about our ourselves from the time we were born to current but it has got a twist into the album. 

Our album will feature other creative pages about us and have history about news events, songs and etc about the year we were born. And other things that other people don't know about.

This album is ideal to give to your kids.  They will learn more about their mum through the album.  My albums are only eight inch sized as I don't have many photos of myself while growing up.  My mum isn't really a photographer and generally it takes over a year to finish a film.

Last night was the first night of our BOM workshop.  In 90 minutes after all the introductions and lessons ideas said in the first hour, we had to complete our title page and another page about our life before scrapbooking.  No one got to do page two because most of us didn't get much homework done beforehand. I managed to get most of the title page done but I need to use the cricut to diecut the title. Page two I have written up some draft notes but I will complete this page at one of Tuesday's meets. Because I am creating two albums it will take me abit longer to do then other ladies. 

Workshop two will be held at the end of this month.  This time we need to have photos from our childhood years to early adult. Enough photos to create four pages.

My mojo is slacking off

A month has almost passed since I last reported about my scrap meets. I attended to most of the workshops at my consultant's house on Friday night, Saturday and there is another one hosted tomorrow.  This month has been more about family and love layout ideas with the new paper packs introduced.  

She will have a new workshop once a month, starting next week. This workshop will be all about me.  Most of us who intends to be photographer don't have many photos about themselves and we don't intend to album about ourselves either.  I am not really a photographer person to have photos taken but I guess I should have an album about my life and give the album each to my kids.  My consultant started this workshop theme four years ago but the group lost interested after a couple of months. It will be interesting to see how long these monthly workshops will last.

One of the ladies from the casual meets has started to create her ideal of an album about herself and her life.  Her first album was about her first ten years of life and it was quite interesting to view.  She gives alot of history about the city life to where I grew up.  And lucky for her parents they collected alot of memorabilia during her child hood years.  Unfortunately my own mother wasn't a photographer so there isn't really alot of photos of me while growing up.  So I guess my album will be more about journalling then photos.  Also I don't have alot of memorabilia to share either.

I missed two casual meets at the craft store on Tuesdays this month.  The first one I had another commitment on and I missed today's casual time as I had a sick child home from school. I have almost finished one project I started in January. It's about my kid's school life at the first primary school and I plan on giving this mini album to a family member for Christmas.  I never realised I taken so many photos from their school events. 

The next project will be another primary school album from the current school my 11 yo is still at.  She will be graduating her primary school life at the end of this year.  I plan on making a start with this project at scrap camp in April.

Another project I have in mind is a mini book of me to give to someone special.  I purchased this love package deal in January.  It's an 8 inch album with love theme pages to use into the album.  But I think you only use one photo on each page.  On the front cover of the album has a family tree in a shape of love hearts.

Don't lose your mojo!  Keep on creating on whatever projects you got planned to do.

2012 meets

Back to school meant it was back in business to attend to regular scrap meets this week.  And it was good to be back and catch up with other regular scrappers. 

On Tuesday I went back to my casual scrap with other ladies at my local scrap store.  At the moment I am working on getting a mini school album finished for one of this year's Christmas presents. It might be another week or two and this album will be completed. 

The next day which happened to be yesterday, I had my first four hour workshop at my consultant's house. She will be planning to host three workshops per month on Wednesday, Friday night and Saturday morning.

We had a workshop topic about love with using the new love series papers and the new border cartridge.  Not sure if I will purchased the love cartridge as I find it intends to have the paper caught inside the punch.  But I didn't purchase the new love series papers through.  Also I placed an order to get a new 8 inch love series album with the paper kit suited for this album. With this album I plan on creating for someone special.

Until my next report, keep on being creative.

12 hour scrap

My first scrap meet occurred yesterday.  The organiser is my CM consultant who I have been attending to either her home or other venues for the past eight years, hosted this 12 hour event at her child's local school staffroom. Consider the size of the staffroom, there was 22 ladies crapped inside this room to work on their own projects for 12 hours.  There was only one lady who showed up six hours late as she had a prior commitment to attend to that day. 

Yes... it is normal work day for some people but most of the ladies who attend to our regular meets are teachers who currently on summer holidays. And they had the advantage to attend to a 12 hour workshop with their co-workers. There was only a couple of ladies who aren't teachers so they had to organise a day off work to be able to come along and scrap.  It makes me wonder if their employer really knew what their employees really got up to on their unexpected day off after having time off during the festive season break.

Most groups have their own little group members who sit together to chat and scrap but I am the only outsider who just gets dumped and sits with whoever has a spare chair to sit at the table with.  Unfortunately the majority of the group I sat with yesterday weren't really user friendly when it comes to conversations. Working alone was a good advantage point to get the motivation to complete many pages I intend to participated on the day.  

This year my resolution is to work on completing projects I started on sometime ago.  Yesterday I worked on two eight inch albums which I managed to finish off one album. My consultant did have a couple of workshop demos for any of us to try out but I already spent a week at home preparing the pages I wish to work on for 12 hours.

Also our consultant had raffle tickets on offered which we had to try to earned for free.  I never really bothered with any of the offers because I never win anything from these meets.

I already won a scrap challenge from other sources.  It was a challenge I entered online last month.  My winnning prize came in the mail just before I walked out the door.  I was so over the moon with what I received which I am sure my goodies will come in handy to use at some point.

Back to normal scrap meets and workshops doesn't resume back until the new year of schooling starts in late January.