February 2006 RAK Sponsor (Newsletter LOs)

I can't believe the AMAZING talent we get to work with on the Sponsor Team at RAK. In February we were sponsored by the super designers at ScrapDish, the wonderful Brenda Kempf (Addicted to Digital), and our very own Correen Silke with her site Silke Scraps. These women are SO talented. Here are my contributions to the Feb 06 RAK Newsletter.

Credits: My Sweet Love by Correen Silke @ Silke Scraps. Appeared in the Feb 06 RAKScraps Newsletter.

Credits: Boyz by Brenda Kempf @ Addicted to Digital Appeared in the Feb 06 RAKScraps Newsletter.

Credits: Lights, Camera, Action by Rachel Dickson @ ScrapDish. Appeared in the Feb 06 RAKScraps Newsletter.

It's a Chick's Life

I don't usually visit the Digi Chick much. I'm always busy at RAK. But a lot of the girls have been posting really awesome pages at RAKs and indicating they were for the It's a Chick's Life challenge. So curiosity finally got the better of me and I logged in and got the info. Let me tell you...I've felt more creative in the last two days than I have in a LOOOONG time. Now if only I could get together the nerve to post at Digi Chick. :-S TFL!

The 2006 Intentions page inspired by the It's a Chick's Life Challenge @ The Digi Chick: Kit is Soul Search by Carrie Stephens @ Fish Scraps Fonts are Rugged Stencil (Abstract Fonts), Festus! (DaFont), and Suzanne Quill (Feb/March 06 Scrapbook Answers Disc.)

Page 1 in the It's a Chick's Life Challenge @ The Digi Chick was a 2005: Year In Review page. So I narrowed our year down to the 9 most significant things for our family. Kit is Happy by Diane Critelli @ Scrapbook Bytes. Fonts are Huntson (Corel), POTH Stamped Irregular (Pages of the Heart), and Suzanne Quill (Feb/March 06 Scrapbook Answers Disc.)

My very first All About Me page. Done with inspiration from the It's a Chick's Live Challenge @ The Digi Chick: Kit is Lavender Rose by Lyndsay Riches @ Scrapping Place. Fonts are English Vivace BT (Corel) and Suzanne Quill (Feb/March 06 Scrapbook Answers Disc)

Mom's Advice Album with Tania @ RAK

I did this page for Tania's Mom's Advice Album at RAK. Quote one was "If you keep making that face, it will freeze that way." It just so happens, in the last few weeks Avery has started pulling faces, a new little "talent" he picked up at school. This is a little outside the box for me as I'm usually a 12x12 scrapper but in the interest of actually being able to print I did this page (and will do the rest of the album) at 4x6. I sort of like it...If I could just get used to the empty space, lol.



Quote one for Tania's Mom's Advice Album over at RAK. The Quote is "If you keep making that face, it will freeze that way." Kit: A Retro Kick by Krista Mettler at ScrapDish. Polaroid frames created by me. TFL!

WARNING: DH RANT (and I don't mean dear)

GRR.

I love this man....but he sure as hell can infuriate me. He started a big ole' argument with me yesterday when he decided that he wasn't going to go to dinner with us. Why? Because my mom was coming as well. I had called mom to talk to her and mentioned that we were going out to the pizza shop to get dinner so the boys could play the ticket games there. She decided that she would meet us there with my step-dad. Not planned, not contrived...she just came along. It's not like it's not a public restaurant. So Josh refuses to go with us because my mom was coming. His excuse is he didn't want to be bothered; he just wanted to eat real fast and come home. Well if you don't want to be bothered with FAMILY then perhaps we shouldn't have been planning a trip to a restaurant with an arcade and ticket counter?! I mean it's not like he's gonna get home too fast while Avery is trying to play skee ball! GRR. I was so pissed off I left here without him.

Then this morning (evidently still mad at me over dinner) he left the house without waking me or even telling me good-bye. Avery didn't have school today so it wasn't like we missed, but still. Not even a good-bye. I was terribly hurt. It's like every time he does something good to try to mend our relationship, so I/we can start to heal from the past, he has to find a reason to get us fighting again. It's terribly uncomfortable for me, and not at all good for the boys. I'm quickly approaching where I was three years ago...just not caring at all. Only this time its stronger. I feel it more.

It's very sad.

Pinhole Cameras

YAY! I'm so psyched! I got an A on my pinhole camera project!!!! I was amazed! Woohoo! I'm not terribly pleased with them but they are growing on me. The more I look at them the better I like them, lol. I'm going to post them and add a little discription to them. But before anyone busts me up too bad ( :D ) there's a shot of the actual "camera" I made to take them. It's just a card board box (actually a puzzle box) with a hole cut in the front and piece of brass shim stock taped to it. There's a itty-bitty pin hole punched in the shim stock that allows the light to get in. Then we would shoot onto light sensitive to get a "negative" and contact print the negative to get the positive.

So...here they are....enjoy! (I think... :-P )

The dreaded pinhole camera. This is the inside. You put light sensitive paper in there and expose it through a teeny, bitty hole in the brass on the left. That makes your image.

LOL I can see it now....the "thundering hooves" camera. :-P In stores everywhere this fall. ;-)

Surreal Folk Hall: Contact Print: Pinhole Camera

Spindly Tree: Contact Print: Pinhole Camera

Downtown Akron Skyline (taken from the Exchange Street parking deck): Contact print to 8x10 from 2x4 negative: Pinhole Camera

Toy Fruit Still Life: Set up in the class room (AJ and TJs toys): Negative: Pinhole Camera

Folk Hall and the Meyers School of Arts at the University of Akron: (This is where I take my photog class.): Pinhole Camera

Skyline from the Exchange Street Parking Deck: (Basically a view of the inter-street structure at the University.): Pinhole Camera

So...I've been avoiding it, lol...

After the mention of the Grammy's and all a relative (who shall remain nameless) asked why I hadn't mentioned them again in my blogging. Well...because...*pouting*...My Paulie didn't win. Not one friggin' catergory! He took it graciously as always and looked oh so handsome on stage. I loved it...

"This is my first time playing at the Grammy's...I finally passed the audition." He's such a riot.

He was totally rocking Helter Skelter. I just don't understand why the commitee didn't recognize him this year. :( Chaos and Creation in the Backyard was (IMHO) one of his best since Wings. Ahh well... he sure looked hot, lol.


Image from fan forum. (Thanks SuperBet.)

RAKWeek Blog Challenge with AmyK

Well, Amy's running this awesome little blog challenge over at RAK to get us all in a bloggy sort of mood. Challenge #1 was to add a header but I just put this one up on the 8th so I think it might be here to stay, lol. Guess I'll have to do a LO to make up for it.

Challenge #2 is to answer the following questions...

1. What colors do you use the most when you scrap?

Well....I suppose because I scrap my boys I tend to use mostly blues and greens. If you look at the kits that are out for boys (which are gorgeous) they are mostly in blues and greens and browns. So I tend to stick to those. For my mom's album I'm trying very hard to keep all of the pages predominantly pink. Not because she's a woman but because it is a Breast Cancer Survivor album so the pink is significant. I suppose with the boys I tend to try to coordinate the colors in the page with the colors in the photos and since the boys are usually wearing blue it spills out onto the LO.

2. What is your favorite kit theme? (like boys, girls, heritage, special event, etc)

My favorite theme...that's a hard one. I HAVE mostly boy kits (see above, lol) but I can't say that those are my favorite theme. I love all the adorable girls kits that are out but have no use for them so I gravitate towards boys kits. What I really love is any kit that has a unique twist to it...something that you don't see all the time. Be it a special element, a really funky paper, anything that sets the kit off from the rest. I was recently fortunate enough, through RAK, to work with Lights, Camera, Action by Rachel Dickson @ ScrapDish. At first glance you'd think the kit was only FOR movie LOs but it is SO versatile. I'm a story teller so it was easy for me to use the movie theme to make LOs about things that had happened in our lives. (See the Ice Cream Follies below, lol.) I love kits that are unique and fresh.

3. What are your favorite elements to use when you scrap?

Looking at my Gallery I think probably ribbon. I like the way you can add a ribbon and draw the eye around the photos. I also like word art (but don't use them often enough) and glass/epoxy elements.

4. Describe your style (even if you don't think you have one!)

LOL Eclectic! I tend to do what I think will look good with the photo. With the exception of my mom's album I'm not big on worrying whether the pages in an album coordinate and are the same style. I do what looks good to me. I'm a big journal-er (LOL) so I guess that could be my style....the story teller style. :-P

5. If you could have one kit made especially for you, what would it be for?

If I had a kit made especially for me it would be to scrap my wedding. I've tried to come up with papers and elements to scrap those photos on but I'm just not happy with them. Josh and I were married in a court house and then held an outdoor commitment ceremony in front of our family and friends. The commitment and banquet were held at a park and it was on Sweetest day in October. Everything was in full autumn glory and we played off that with my flowers and decorations. Another problem I run into with those photos are that we were married (and had our commitment) in blue jeans. I wore a white turtleneck that my mom trimmed in lace and ribbon and a base ball cap with a veil, lol. So all the frilly wedding kits (while beautiful) just don't go with my photos, while the fall kits just don't convey the love and affection of the day.

"I'm SO-O-O Tired, I haven't slept a wink..."

Ugggg...I am SO tired. I feel like I've been through the mill the last two weeks.

The photography class that I'd been looking forward to for so long is well under way and it's SO tiring. I was at the University for nearly 7 hours on Sunday trying to get photos. We're working on pinhole cameras right now and they are a nightmare. GRR. Luckily, this is the last "learning experience" we have to go through before we get to start shooting 35mm. I'm super psyched to start 35s. We get our presentation tomorrow (today? lol) so we'll be able to shoot over the weekend and start developing on Monday.

On a happy note...today was a good Valentine's day. Beaners was SO excited to go in to school today. I got him some little Finding Nemo Valentines to take to school. When I walked him into room 103 he ran to his little cubby and grabbed something out which he promptly thrust into my hands. He made me the most darling construction paper heart with confetti and streamers glued to it. It's Bee-U-T-Ful! I'll get a pic up here tomorrow. Then Nana (well Mom to me) came by after Avery and TJ and I got home from school. She brought a present for me from the boys. A cute little purple teddy bear holding a frame that says "I love Mommy." And BALOONS!!! (For anyone that doesn't know...I love balloons!) As if that wasn't all wonderful enough...Josh came home from work with 3 red and yellow carnations and a beautiful Hallmark. Then on my way out the door to Chem class he presented me with a DVD with a bunch of roses lightscribed to the front. I watched it during our break and he'd made me a photostory with photos of us and the boys. I SO cried, lol. I guess despite the tired I've had a really good day.

Valentine's ATC

My ATC for the Valentine's ATC Challenge I hosted this month at RAK. Kit is Sweet Music Heart Snip by Ronnie McCray @ Pages of the Heart. Fonts are Porcelain and BlackCastle by www.dafont.com. Heart and Love brushes from http://www.1greeneye.net/brushes/.

Essayist

I didn't really realize how much I enjoyed the winter break until school started again. Don't get me wrong...I love going to school...It's just...I hate writing essays, lol. We've been back in session a grand total of 4 weeks and my first essay is due. I suppose that wouldn't be so bad save the fact that my English Comp II class is on Saturday so we only meet once a week. It just seems like we started in on the first essay as soon as we got into the class. So here I am blogging, when I really should be writing an essay. I really love to write but an essayist I am not.

I think the problem has to do with this teachers writing process. We've got to freewrite and then focus freewrite and then do a Pro/Con chart...then outline, draft, edit, revise....BLAH! I've already spent over 6 hours with this paper and I've not even gotten a manuscript! Each step along the way must be documented (read: has to be turned in) so I totally feel like I'm writing for no reason. I'm used to sitting down and plunking out a first draft...handing that in...and then cleaning it up for a final copy. This writing process is for the damn birds, lol.

Anywho... 'nuff of the rant... I've got a paper to write... oh the joy. :D

Feb RAK Sponsor ScrapDish

Ice Cream Follies: created with Lights, Camera, Action by Rachel Dickson @ ScrapDish. This is a 2 page spread of TJ. This shot happens to be his first ice cream headache. Taken on his first birthday when we took him for his first ice cream cone.

Ice Cream Follies pg 2: created wth Lights, Camera, Action by Rachel Dickson @ ScrapDish. Page 2 of a spread I made of TJ enjoying his first birthday ice cream cone. LO was for the February Sponsors Gallery @ RAKScraps.

Home Sweet Blog

Ahh...finally a place to call home. It occured to me the other day that I should try to format a blog so that I could write in it more often. And while I think I'll keep my other blog, this one just seems to feel like home.

Perhaps a PSA about the title?

Let me see. Chaos and Creation... That was knicked directly from Chaos and Creation in the Backyard a rockin' little album by Sir Paul McCartney himself. (SHAMELESS PROMO: Chaos and Creation in the Backyard is up for Album of the year tonight on the 48th Annual Grammy Awards) Macca also uses this little gem in the song Fine Line (which you may remember from the lovely Lexus and Fidelity commercials :D.) The actual lyric is "There is a long way between chaos and creation..."

This fits for me.

There's such a blown out distinction between the "chaos" of my world and the "creation" of my artistic side. While I feel like I'm flying a million miles a minute in circles in my life, I feel totally at ease, and completely at home when I'm behind the lens of a camera or parked contendedly in front of my monitor with my trackball clutched in my hand.

So aside from that what can be said? This little slice of cyberspace will, I guess :-P, be where I can write (which I don't do enough of,) share my DigiScraps, my photography, and my homelife. So... my little corner of the cyber world. Yes...I am queen of my "domain" and it feels damn good.