Technique Speak: April 2008

Thursday, April 24, 2008

"Farktography"

Check out today's "Farktography" contest here. These contests happen every two weeks or so. For each contest, a subject is given, this week, "Tangled Up". I like checking out people's interpretations of the subject (the most varied interpretations I ever saw were for the "sharp things" subject). You can also learn some cool camera tricks.

Check it out, just one warning, the page loads a little slow. I suggest opening the link in another window and letting it load while you do something else.

Enjoy!

Sunday, April 20, 2008

A Lesson in Aging

Ok, this layout was just for fun! I hope it makes you smile (and yes, this conversation actually happened).In case you can't read it, the journaling says:
{a conversation between Amanda and the teenage employee of a local scrapbook store}
Are your crops attended mostly by older people?
Oh yeah!
Really?
I mean…like your age...

Journaling Emotional Events

Ok, before you scroll down too far, I will be the first to admit that the journaling in these next two layouts may come across as a little...negative. I was suffering from a two-week deep blue funk and was trying to get my emotions down on paper while they were fresh...and raw. I like the way both of these turned out, although they are probably not put-in-the-family-album layouts (but not everything has to be). These layouts will probably go in my all-about-me album that I am creating.

Journaling Reads:

I have always been an engineer. When I was eight, my parents gave me a book on how to draw animals, saying that if I wanted to be an artist, I should start early. It quickly became apparent to me that I had no natural talent for drawing. At the age of 14, I tried painting. In college, I tried singing. Turns out, I was always an engineer. Then, in 2003, I discovered scrapbooking. It didn’t come easy, but slowly, I discovered an underlying talent in something artistic. I liked that scrapbooking, while in itself an artform, encompasses many others.

In 2007, for the first time, I introduced myself to someone as an artist. In 2008, I decided to enter the Creating Keepsakes Hall of Fame contest. I loved, and still love, my entry. The contest pushed me in ways I had never been pushed. I thought I had a real chance. So, I hoped, and I dreamed. Today, I am still an engineer, and I am still…..

Journaling Reads:

...not winning the 2008 HOF...workload worries at work, the bane of my consulting existence... the (hopefully temporary) loss of my artistic mojo...the never ending climb out of debt...the eternal struggle to lose weight...doctors, doctors, and more doctors...still trying to make friends, 1 year later...

Friday, April 18, 2008

Inspiration Today

Here is what is inspiring me today:

Where's Waldo

I like the way this artist has chosen to adapt something familiar to today's technology, making it new again. Real thinking outside the box. I like the idea of hiding things out in the open for other people to find. Perhaps there is a way to hide words or phrases or symbols that only our families would recognize for what they are in our scrapbook pages...Perhaps I will give this a try.

Also, I would like to thank everyone for the encouraging comments I received regarding my (unsuccessful) 2008 HOF submittal. I will definitely keep trying!

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

My (unsuccessful) 2008 HOF Submittal

This was my first time entering, and I was like a proud parent.....

Here it is, for your viewing enjoyment, feedback is always appreciated and questions are always welcomed.

TFL!

Assignment A - Journal Your Passion

Journaling reads:

Please, no bathing suit photos. Why make it a life goal to visit the top 10 water parks in the US? Mostly because no one has compiled a list of the top 10 water parks in the world (hint hint, travel channel).

Why water parks at all? Well, why not? No remote (or batteries) required. Generally nothing frustrating
enough to require cursing (unlike most of life or the afore mentioned bathing suit photos). Just simplistic fun. Before long, I’m running up the long stair ways to have another go at the “Point of No Return”, the “Master Blaster”, or the aptly named “Royal Flush”.

I’ll also elbow the occasional child away from the water cannons, the water forts, or the water obstacle courses, although I attempt to do so politely. I’ve also found myself patiently trying to explain the finer points of water warfare strategy to ten year olds, after all, everyone needs backup. It doesn’t matter that I no longer have the abdominal muscles to make it across that path of floating water donuts, I’ll take my face-first cannonball punishment for my sedentary lifestyle. Who cares that I’ve never surfed, I’ll take my go at that wave maker, thank you very much. And although I’ve developed an affinity for drowning, there’s no way you’d be able to talk me out of five rounds in the wave pool, up front where the waves are highest.

In fact, the only concession to my age I’ve made is dedicating a large block of each visit to truly, indulgently, experiencing the lazy river (oh yeah, and that prohibition on those pesky bathing suit photos).

Assignment B - Photo Extraordinaire

This layout is built on a 12x12 transparency.

Journaling Reads:

I called Randy over with a breathless “Hey babe, look at the cool stuffed owl!” It was, after all, only six inches or so tall. Then, he *winked* at me. Like he had a secret. 8-24-07

Assignment C - Inventive Technique

This layout is a 12x12 8-pointed star.

Tag Fronts:

Journaling reads:

Tag 1: I can not know where I most wish to be, because I have not seen all there is to see. -RA Salvatore.

Tag 2: Home is where...everything began...we became family...innocence resides...friends are made and kept...dreams are born.

Tag 3: Home is where...I grew up happy, safe, and loved...I met my soulmate...I developed an appreciation for history...my family remains...my childhood is.

Journaling reads:

Tag 4: Home is where...I learned to be independent...I became responsible to others...I learned not to be afraid of adventure...I began to acheive my dreams.

Tag 5: Home is where...I married my soulmate...I got my first real job...I met my first neice...my sister and I were finally able to be close...my adult life began.

Tag 6: Home is where...my friends are...my heart longs to be...I discovered my art form...I am free to be who I am meant to be...the land is truly beautiful...the people are diverse and accepting...I chose to be.

Journaling reads:

Tag 7: Home is where...we can be close to family...we can watch our family grow...we can begin new adventures...I can pursue my art.

Tag Backs:

Journaling reads:

Tag 1: Many may consider me homeless, unlucky, rootless. I consider myself many homed, lucky in all the adventures and experiences being many homed has given me. And I'm not done yet!

Tag 2: VA 77 - 79

Tage 3: SC 79 - 95

Journaling reads:

Tag 4: MO 95 - 99

Tag 5: WI 99 - 03

Tag 6: CA 03 - 07

Journaling reads:

Tag 7: FL 07 - ?

Assignment D - Designing with 3 or More Photos

This is a 2-page layout.

Page 1:

Page 2:

Journaling Reads:

Pier 39 – Ghirardelli Square – Golden Gate Park – Marin Headlands – Aquarium of the Bay – Lombard St. – Haight Ashbury – Golden Gate Bridge – Cable Cars – the bus system – Shoe Shopping – Sea Lions – Alcatraz – The Bay Bridge – The Financial District – the food – Berkeley – scrapbook stores – Boudin – Harry Mason - seafood

Assignment E - Color Watch

Journaling Reads:

Today, I have chosen to shed outside opinions and prejudices about what I create. Today, I have rejected my own reservations about the value of my work. Today, I have, for the first time, not only proclaimed myself, but fully embraced the significance of being, an artist.

Assignment F - Crafty Combo

Ship is paper-pieced:

Group 3:

This layout is a watercolor on watercolor paper.

Journaling (folds out from back) reads:

For all of his adult life, Randy has adamantly been anti-children. For the bulk of my adult life, so have I. Randy felt he’d had enough of kids watching, and helping, his mother be the neighborhood babysitter. I was never able to imagine how children would fit into our lives.

I always maintained the possibility that would we one day change our minds. Randy maintained the possibility that I would one day take his side.

And for seven years of marriage, that is how it went.

Then, a series of events began in 2006.

Health issues resulted in me not being able to take birth control for the first time in ten years. My hormones were finally allowed to go back to my natural baseline. And then something started ticking, in the back of my mind, intermittently.

I started thinking maybe kids wouldn’t be the end of life as we knew it.

On a day long drive to my sister’s house for Fourth of July 2007, Randy and I started talking about baby names. See, I was always worried I would have a boy first, if I ever had kids. It’s not that I didn’t want a boy; it’s that I didn’t want only boys. I explained to Randy that I couldn’t see myself with boys, partly because I’d never been able to find a little boy’s name that felt right to me.

We found a name that day, both of us, talking like it could actually happen someday.

After a wild week in late 2007, I thought I might be pregnant. I told Randy I would take a pregnancy test in the morning. He asked if he should stay home and wait for the results. I told him not to worry about it, if he didn’t hear from me it was good news. When he asked me if negative was good news, I shrugged.

He said “yeah, I don’t know either”.

(Photo of me holding my niece, {name removed}, on her birthday, October 4, 2002.)

Journaling Reads:

Engineer – cousin – photographer – wife – technologist – environmentalist – geologist – aunt – historian – friend – independent – daughter – sister – artist – academic – hydrogeologist – niece – project manager – scrapbooker – in-law