Story Camp - Part 3

Hi, 
Its the 30th September here in Melbourne and I am almost done.  Over the past few weeks I have been working on journalling and finishing things off.  Last weekend I was really motivated to get a lot done.  But that was only after all the housework and laundry was done of course!
At the end of last weekend, I basically had one more full day to complete, a couple of full pages to do, and one page that I wasn't happy with at all that needed some more thought.
Here's what some of the pages looked like at the end of the photos/journalling/embellishment process:

and

Yesterday I pulled out the travel phrase stamp, the "Go" story stamp and another random travel type stamp, and made all the Avery index taps for the pages smaller than 9x12. 

I stuck to black stazon ink for these to simplify the process.

While most of my albums are the same page size throughout, I really enjoyed the freedom to use lots of different size pages in this album - it made it so much easier to the tell the story as it needed.

So here's some snaps of that process, also showcasing how I used different size photos.

and

Today I am finishing the album off.  I have the following things to do:

- make a 9x12 page of the trees at Muir Woods (I don't really have a good photo, but have to put something in the back of the pocket)

- create my title page

I know......my title page is the last thing to do.  I have seen so many great opening pages but I just cannot work out what I want this page to look like.  Story Camp was the whole reason I took this trip, but it was only 2 1/2 days of the 14 days I was away.  And the start of the Story Camp section in the album is really obvious, so I don't want to repeat that.

I love the pages that have your travel shown - so a map of Australia, and a map of the USA with the flight path between the two is calling to me......but I am rubbish at digital so not sure how I would achieve that.

Anyway.....that's my plan.

The album is FULL!  So full that all the ephemera I collected doesn't fit.  Nor will the travellers notebook with all the signatures in it, that I will be adding more photos of people to.

I've never recorded a video of my albums before, but I am so pleased with this album that I will attempt to record it during the week.

Thanks for reading,

Amanda

Story Camp - Part 2

Welcome to Part 2 of my Story Camp album.  Six weeks have gone past and I have almost finished printing photos.  There are a few more I need to print in larger sizes, and a few more to fill pockets, but for the main part they are done.
But gee......I  am not good at choosing photos - I want to use them all.

Where I could I tried to fit an event or section of the trip to one page.  A good example is this page of my visit to the Chinese Gardens in Portland.  That was Day 3 of my trip, but the first full day in the US.  And I did a LOT that day.  So I broke the day up into different locations.
I had lots of photos (could easily have done a double page) but thought this was the best combination.  The middle 4x6 pocket will hold the story.

After I had booked all my flights, I looked at what was around Portland to do.  And realised Seattle was just a few hours by train.  And Seattle has the Chihuly Glass Museum and Garden.  I LOVE Chihuly glass (I am a big fan of glass art full stop), so I worked out a way to fit this into the trip.  And I took photos.........a LOT of photos.  This day takes up 7 sides (plus another side for tickets etc). So I used a variety of pocket pages to hold as many photos as I could.  A page with 12 3x3 pockets was perfect for many of these, as below:

Choosing and printing photos was a big, time consuming job.  And I needed to break things up a bit.  So I took a few items and created some full page layouts as I had ideas.
One of the best ideas was asking Katie if I could have the Welcome sign that was on the door to the room we used.  This was added to create a simple page:

Using Challenges
During August, Traci Brookes ran a challenge on the Ali Edwards Craft The Story FB page - 2 layouts a week for 4 weeks.  I managed to finish all 8 challenges, and many of them I used as guides for my album.  These are shown below:

So, I have a combination of most of the photos in the album, quite a few large layouts done (these are only some of them), and ephemera still in pockets waiting to be used or discarded.
Adding Chipboard
With the photos almost complete, I spent time this morning going through my chipboard - the travel release, travel words, Go kit, some from a recent SBTM kit, and some odds and ends from other companies.
I popped out the chipboard and added them into appropriate pockets.  Some will go directly onto the photos, some will go onto plain journal cards, and some will go onto filler cards.
This makes the album over-full.  So I am going to do what I do in my PL and in other projects as needed - remove 1/2 or more of the backing of the chipboard.  This keeps the design, and adds dimension, but removes lots of the bulk.

Other embellishments
I have also looked through the other embellishments I have that are travel related, and added some to pockets to use.  Still a bit of work to do there.

Journalling Cards
Next up I am putting journalling cards into pockets.  What I know is that I don't have enough travel themed journalling cards.  I always have this problem!  So how will I solve it?  The same way I have solved it for other albums.....
Use plain white cards as a base.  Add chipboards I placed in the pockets onto the cards.  Stamp images onto the cards in co-ordinating colours.  Add some washi to some.  Use die-cuts to create new cards.
Its a bit more creativity before I get started on journalling my story.

The reality is I will probably jump between putting the cards in, creating new cards and filling them in.

My aim is to complete this album before DD comes along.  That sounds like a way off, but its early September, so its only 11 weeks ago.  

Will be back here for Part 3.

Thanks for reading,
Amanda

Story Camp - Part 1

Hi,
On the 18th December 2017, I was awake at some ridiculous hour, as Ali Edwards' April Story Camp was going to go on sale.  With only 35 places available, it was, as the previous camps, going to be a matter of luck whether I would get a spot or not.  I think the fact it was a week before Christmas may have helped, that people may not have had the funds available for a place.
After madly refreshing my screen over and over, the tickets went live. I typed as fast as I could, ignoring the fact it added a $35 postage fee to my order and, as quick as I could I hit Confirm Order.  And my screen flashed up with a confirmation that I had been successful!!!!!!!
I couldn't believe it. In fact, I didn't believe it.  I thought that there must have been a glitch and probably 350 people got accepted.  So i closed my laptop, put it under the bed and went back to sleep.
When I woke up again, I re-checked my laptop.  Then I checked my email and sure enough, there was a confirmation email in there.  Then I checked my credit card - yep, that had been charged.  Still not quite believing it, I went online to Ali's Facebook group and saw that people had excitedly commented that they got in.  And there was no mention of an issue.
It started to sink in - I was really going to go to Story Camp!!!!!

The next few months were spent planning and co-ordinating.  Not only was I going to Story Camp, but we organised for my Mum to go from New Zealand to North Carolina to see her little sister - a sister she hadn't seen for 58 years.  I did all the travel arrangements and organised things with my cousins in NC, as well as my own planning.

I won't go into all the details, but April 14th and I was on my way - a flight to Sydney to meet Mum and my sister and have dinner to celebrate my Dad's birthday - the first since he passed away.  A sleep, then on the 15th our flight to San Francisco.  A 3 hour delay, followed by another hour delay and another 1/2 hour.  Stressed does not describe it.

Upon landing, I went to the Qantas desk to see what would happen to Mum and my sister, given they had well and truly missed their connecting flight.  While Qantas call centre in Sydney and at the airport had been hopeless (suggesting a 10 hour wait at the airport for a flight to Dallas, another 2 hour wait then a flight to NC), San Francisco staff were brilliant.  I told them the offer from Sydney was not acceptable - Mum was tired, and in a wheelchair as she can't walk far.  In 10 minutes, they had booked a hotel close to the airport, arranged transport for them, vouchers for lunch, dinner, breakfast, transport back to the airport the next day and had booked them onto a direct flight the next day.  With them sorted i gave them both a hug, wished them a happy holiday and RAN upstairs to drop my bag and race to the gate for my flight.  I got in just before they assigned remaining 3 seats to some people on standby.  1 person was not happy that I made it......

Next stop Portland, where I would stay for 4 nights.

The trip itself was brilliant, and I will explain more as I put my album together.

I have just finished doing Al'is travel play and Stories of Travel workshops, so feel very motivated to begin the album for my trip.  And I'll document some of my process here.
Album choice
I am terrible at using a small number of photos, so I knew a 3x8 and even a 6x8 was out of the question.  But 12x12 would be too big.  So I decided on a 9x12.
Yeah, should have thought that through a bit more.  As well as the album, I ordered a few packets of page protectors, but they didn't have packs of the style I wanted so I got some mixed packs - leading to some configurations I'm not sure I will use.  I chose a nice red album from Studio Calico.

Ephemera
Once home from the trip, I sorted all the things I had collected - tickets, maps, bookmarks, hotel keys, info booklets from places I visited etc.  I put these into full 9x12 pockets in the order of the trip.  I always scrap trips in chronological order, with the exception of a few generic filler cards.
This means when I start to fill in the pages I can easily see what else I have to add to the album.

Photos
While on the trip I tried to cull my photos as I went - deleting all the blurry ones, duplicates (just to make sure I got a good one) so that I had fewer to work with.
I loaded my photos from my phone and my camera onto my computer the weekend after I got home.  Then I created a folder for each day and sorted the photos that way.  Next step was to create folders within each day for significant themes - e.g. the Japanese garden, city sights, Chinese garden - and I did this for each of the days of the trip.

Products
I have a 12x12 box that I put products for the big projects I am working on in.  I bought a few things while in the US, and had already gone through my stash to pull out suitable things to add,  then added Ali's travel products, and one of the SBTM kits based on adventure. A pretty full box!

Step 1

I am currently working on printing my photos and putting them into the album.  Starting with Day 1.  Looking through my photos, and looking at the page protectors I have very quickly I realised I wouldn't have enough page protectors that had 4x6 pockets.  A quick look online and I knew I wasn't going to have much luck there either.  So I got my fuse tool out of its pocket (had it for over a year, never used it) and did some practice.  I thought it was pretty easy so I got a stack of protectors that had 6 4x6 pockets, and sealed the right hand pockets to create 3x4 pockets.  So now I have protectors that hold 3 4x6 photos on the left hand side, and 3 3x4 pockets on the right.  I also took some protectors that hold 12 3x4 pockets and cut off the last column.  I also cut some pages that have 3 6x4 verticals on the top and 4x3 horizontal on the bottom 2 rows so I have 2 6x4 verticals, and 4 4x3 horizontals on the bottom.  Giving myself so much more variety.

And now I am ready to start.  

Looking at my photos I created another folder for each day "Printing".  I put the must have photos into that folder for all themes for the day.  And I did this for every day of the trip.

Then I looked at these folders and started printing - deciding on which page protector to use as I went - no formula involved here.

I am up to Day 6 - the day I travelled from Portland to Eugene. I have already used 11 page protectors (so 22 individual pages when you look at front and back), and that doesn't include ephemera, or the pages that I have yet to work out how I will fit a large number of photos into one or two pages. 

So my album looks like this at the moment.

No journalling, no embellishments, no ephemera added yet.  And my trip still has 9 1/2 days to go with photos.

My plan is to finish selecting and printing photos and filling the pockets before anything else (but I can always change my mind right).  

The other thing I will be working on is a travellers notebook - the hibiscus one pictured in my project box above.  I got attendees from Story Camp to sign it, write me a note etc, so my plan is to print more of the photos from Story Camp and add to the notebook, which will go into the envelope in my album.

So that's the background to my trip, and the work I have done so far to create my album.

Part 2 to come in the next few weeks.

Amanda

31 Things.......Phase 2

This past week I have continued my work on my 31 Things project.  First up was making a title page.

I've also been taking my notes and writing them up into journalling posts.  I had already cut 31 cards to 3"x8" for this purpose.
I also finished making notes for all the headings on the way to and from work.

On the journalling cards I added some thin glitter washi tape to the bottom of each card, to co-ordinate with the page the card will go on.  I also made sure I left enough room at the top of each card to add a small stamp.

I also made notes of what photos I wanted to use, and which ones I still need to take.  For those I already had, I printed those off, ready to use.

I have put the first few pages together - to get the measurements correct - so should be finished this project by the end of the coming week.

Am loving getting these stories completed.

31 Things - Phase 1

Ali Edwards offered the 31 Things class a few years ago, and it is now available as a 'self paced' class.  The great thing about that is you can work on it as quickly or as slowly as you want, without the guilt of "being behind".

I signed up for the course about a month ago.  This course isn't about being creative, or stressing over which paper, embellishments and design to use.  Ali had a repeatable process for each prompt - a 6x4 horizontal photo at the top of a 6x12 page, a strip border below the photo and the rest of the 6x12 page holds the story, done on the computer.

That wasn't for me - I spend so much time on the computer as it is, so was keen not to do the story and print it out.  

So......I decided that I wanted to use up some of my supplies and put these stories in a dedicated 12x12 album.  A formula was required.  
I settled on each double page having the same 12x12 plain cardstock as the base, with an 11x11 patterned paper inside that - but each page would be a different pattern that co-ordinated with the other and the cardstock.  I did all of the 31 pages I would need over one weekend.  It actually took longer than I expected to get this done!

During the past 4 weeks I have been journalling notes for each prompt in a dedicated little notebook - sometimes on the train to and from work, sometimes after dinner and before bedtime.  And not in order - just as I felt like working on each prompt.

My next step in "Phase 1" was to add a title to each page for that prompt.  I love alpha stickers.  I have them in so many colours and styles.  I recently sold a lot off, which helped as I had fewer to select from.  Again, there was a formula for this - I used the same style and size alphas for just about every page, the same colour alphas for each of the double pages for most of them, and the same location on the page for each side.  Obviously I plan on putting the photo and the journalling card in the same place on each page too.

I'm almost ready for 'Phase 2' - transferring my journalling onto the journalling cards and adding the photos.  Here is what the pages look like so far - nice and simple.

A new start.....

Wow, can't believe it has been 4 years since I posted anything here.  Just goes to show how busy life has been.  That includes returning to work full time, which often involved 6 day weeks and periods of intense travel between Melbourne and Sydney.

On the positive side, I can report that I still managed to find time to keep my PL up to date.

The biggest change in my approach to scrapbooking over the last four years is I tried out more of Ali Edwards classes and some of her smaller projects - December Daily, Week In The Life and Day In the Life.  I have also taken her "One Little Word" project last year and this year.

This week brought with it confirmation of another big change in my and my families lives.  I have been a contractor working on various projects at NAB since June 2009, and my current contract is due to expire at the end of September this year.  But things have been difficult the past 2 years, more so the last 8 months, and so hubby and I decided that the time is right for me to take some time off.

From last week I will only be working 3 days a week and this will run through to the end of August. And then I am taking time off - the plan is that I will return to work somewhere in February 2018.

The main driver is so that I can spend more time with my boys (14 and 10).  So that means I will do all the household stuff during school hours, allowing me to really be available to them when they are home.

Of course, there are other benefits to this time off.  Like being able to spend some time looking after me.  I have just changed gyms to one that has a big variety of classes to go to.  I am going to sit and read more.

And of course I am going to scrapbook more.  I have a list of projects I want to finish and even start.  And sometimes knowing those things are there to be done puts pressure on ourselves.
So I am going to tackle that list with gusto!  I have already started - i bought some older December Daily albums from Ali Edwards in her last sale and created albums using the content I had put into my normal PL albums for 2012, 2013 and 2014.  And it feels great!

And I created a 6x8 album for my 50th birthday party (which I might share at some stage here).

I want to keep track of all the projects I am tackling and completing, so am going to use this blog to do that.

I hope you can pop by sometimes and check out my progress.

Amanda

Week 31.....has got to be done.

Hi, and thanks for visiting.
Another double page spread this week and I switched brands to use the WRMK Memo range.
So, how did I go with my embellishment count this week: word title stickers, wood veneer, paper flowers, thickers, SU border stickers, Echo Park stickers, flair, Studio Calico die cuts: Total of 19.
Here's the left hand side (although taking photos out of pocket ive got them in the wrong order)

 

 and the right....

 

and here is the double spread.





What I have noticed is a lack of photos of my older son and hubby....need to work on that too!
Thanks for visiting,
Amanda