Angie Pedersen's The Blog of ME

Christmas Family Photo Advent Calendar

Found this VERY cute Christmas Family Photo Advent Calendar on Etsy tonight [edited: dangit! The Etsy listing is gone!  This one sounds at least similar: Family Photo Advent Calendar].  I was researching various ways to do advent calendars - since December starts in about a week, I figure I should get started!

I've seen variations on the cookie sheet calendar, and variations on little matchboxes that you open up for little treats.  I was considering doing something where we could pull our corny little Christmas jokes each day (because corny is so ME, and my kids know that).  But I'm liking the family photo idea - it would be so neat to look forward to the different pictures each day, looking back over the holidays we've shared.  I would think you could combine that photo idea with the magnetic cookie sheet idea - just get thin sheets of magnetic paper and adhere the cardstock number to one side, and the photo to the other side - the magnet would still stick to the cookie sheet, right?  That would sure be easier than pounding in 25 little nails.  Hmmm, the holiday wheels are turning...

EDITED TO ADD:

Teresa McFayden's Cookie Sheet Calendar

Altered Matchboxes in a glass bowl

Advent Stocking Garland

Altered Matchbox Garland

Felt Circle Advent Garland

Muffin Tin Advent Calendar

Hanging Tin Bucket Calendar

Hanging Angel Garland

Watchmaker Tin Advent Wreath

Wee Little Socks on a Tree

Christmas Tree on the Fridge

Buttons & YoYo Tree - see how to make the button trees; see all the instructions

Toilet Paper Roll Hanging Countdown - with instructions

hidden door advent calendar

Quickie index cards on a door

Now that I can't find the original image of the one I was going to scraplift, I'm going to have to improvise.  I'll let you know how it turns out!

Do you keep an Advent Calendar?  How does yours work?  Share a comment below!

technorati tags: advent+calendar,, Advent,, DIY,, holiday+crafts

Converting VHS-C to DVD?

I want to convert a number of home movies currently on VHS-C to DVD - anyone have a good service provider they can recommend?

Scrapbook Journaling Idea: Choose Your Thanksgiving Dinner Guest

Via the FamilyTree Magazine newsletter, a fabulous thought-provoking and insightful conversation starter for around the Thanksgiving table this week:

Which ancestor you would most want to have sitting across from you at Thanksgiving dinner, and why would you pick him or her?

Editor Diane Haddad posted this question on the FamilyTree message board.  The replies are really interesting, and quite touching.

At this point, not having dug very far into my family tree, I think I'd like to have dinner with the younger version of my maternal great-grandmother, Ella Smith.  I know very little about her.  My earliest memories of her include visions of her in a wheelchair at a nursing home, her eyes wide and blinking behind thick glasses, her words hard to understand in a voice gone rough with age.  She was 92 when she passed away my senior year of high school - there was a lot of living in those years that are blank pages in my family history.

I'd also like to have dinner with my paternal great-grandfather (or maybe it was great-great-grandfather) - family lore hints that he may have been on the run from the law when he left Sweden for America, and changed his last name on the journey over (or perhaps at Ellis Island).  While passing the platter of turkey, I'd have to ask if the story was true.

Who would you like to have at your table?  And don't think these musings would make GREAT scrapbooking fodder??  :)  Document not only your response(s), but those of others in your family.  You might gain some interesting family insights.  I know I'm curious about my mother's and my mother-in-law's responses, because they've both done some genealogy work, and know more about what interesting characters are hidden in the branches of our family tree.

Digital Photography Assignment: Everyday Artifacts

Digital Photography School recently posted an "assignment" in their forums: Everyday Artifacts.  The task was to shoot photos of "simple or common everyday objects in a new, different or interesting way."

Members posted their results in the message thread - some really neat shots that might inspire you to look around your house for suitable subjects.

"Everyday Things" is always a great subject for a scrapbooking layout - wouldn't you like to see some everyday things from your grandmother's life?  What made up her "everyday life"?  What makes up yours?  How has it changed from five years ago?

Go shoot those photos and scrap that page! :)

PS Check out the past assignments from Digital Photography School, too!

PPS Just a bit of trivia - one of the administrators for Digital Photography School is Darren Rowse, Mr. ProBlogger himself.

Digital Scrapbooking Tip: Convert PDFs to Graphic Files

Hey, look at me - I have the Tip of the Week on the Creating Keepsakes website!  (You can also find it in the archives: Editing PDFs.)

Of course, I don't think they pay if the tip is published only on the website, as opposed to the print mag, but it's still kind of cool.

Look at the Submitted date - I submitted that tip in 2005!  That's the sign of a good tip - you can still use it today.  Now that I'm doing more digital layouts, I'll have to revisit all my PDFs!  LOL 

I particularly like the Printable ECuts at ComputerScrapbook.com -- printable because they're PDF's.  I made the example at left by editing the PDF from the "Let's Go Retro" ECut page (on sale for 99 cents right now!).  Back in The Day, these kinds of images were called "printable" -- now they're "hybrid".  ;)

I used the dramatic "Girl Power 2" set to alter/embellish a Z Becky Brown purse - it turned out SO CUTE!  And helloooo, the "10 Things I Love About..." Kit (part 1 and part 2) just screams both Book of Me and Book of Us projects!  And of course, ComputerScrapbook also carries regular digital scrapbooking kits.

So - what tips do you have from back in The Day that are still good now?  And/or have you made anything cute with the printable/hybrid stuff at ComputerScrapbook?

Blog Queen Shirt Shop

 

Just opened a new CafePress shop - check it out at Blog Queen Shirt Shop.  I'm pretty sure I'm going to have to get myself at least the coffee mug.  :)

My other CafePress links:

• ScrapBlogger
• Power of Your Story
• Go Scrap Yourself!
• Scrapping Diva!

Scrapbooking Blogs on Google

I admit it - I'm not above doing a little "ego search" every now and then.  I just did a search on Google for "scrapbooking blogs".  And was rather pleased with the results.

Top billing (the #1 slot, right now, anyway), goes to my blogging friend Michelle at Scrapability.  Hat tip to you, Michelle!

But who was sharing that front page of Top 10 results?  Yours truly.  <deep bow>  Popping in at #6.

Google is probably the only place I'll get billing above Ali Edwards.  But I'll take it.  :)

Hybrid How-To: Handmade Cards at ScrapHappy

LOVE these cute handmade hybrid Thank You cards by Lain, posted at her blog, ScrapHappy.  She scanned some of her child's artwork, resized to about 2"x2", printed out several on cardstock, sliced them up, and put together a whole slew of Thank You cards.  VERY cute!!

She provides step-by-step instructions, even walking you through the process of scanning the artwork.  (The scanning and printing is what makes these cards "hybrid" - combining computer with traditional paper crafting).

Speaking of hybrid projects, be sure to check out the hybrid scrapbooking projects posted on the Digital Scrapbooking Day blog.

Today is Digital Scrapbooking Day!

It's hard to believe it's actually here - today is the first-ever Digital Scrapbooking Day.  First. Ever.  It's been a bit overwhelming - amazing, humbling to see how it's been adopted and supported. 

Perhaps I should start closer to the beginning...

Back in February, I was listening to a interview with Joan Stewart, The Publicity Hound.  She was talking about how niche holidays can help generate a lot of publicity for a brand or company.  My marketing brain went nuts, and I couldn't wait to email my client/friend, Susan, at Triscape, makers of FxFoto.

"I did some quick research and we can do this -- you need to start and host Digital Scrapbooking Day.  No one has "proclaimed" this day yet, so we can just pick a day and call it.  It will be a day to create awareness of and celebrate the capabilities of digitally-enhanced scrapbooking -- from editing your photos to printing out your journaling to finding inspiration online to creating fully digital layouts."

She responded back not two hours later, and we began to work.  Deciding when to hold the event, what it would celebrate, who should be involved, who to contact, how to make it "official", etc.  So many details.  And now it's here.

And now it seems to be everywhere!!  OMG - have you seen the Event Listing??  Over 30 participating sites, and counting!  And 7 Partners have sponsors prizes - companies like Epson, Shutterfly, and Tamron.  With amazing Grand Prizes, some worth over $400 EACH.

The prizes will be awarded by random drawing for each of the digital scrapbooking challenges - the challenges will be posted hourly, but you have until 9pm Eastern 11/4/07 to enter (so don't worry about completing a challenge in an hour to win!)

There are a number of things I wish I could have gotten done - I wanted to do podcast interviews with digi-designers, maybe a roundtable discussion, post some videos on YouTube...but...I'm still very pleased with the content we got up.  I haven't done laundry in probably two weeks, but...eh.  What's laundry in the face of making digital history???

My husband asked me tonight what I was doing tomorrow.  I sort of snorted at him, and said I'd probably be glued to my laptop, keeping an eye on everything.  He looked kind of confused, and said, "Aren't you going to be scrapbooking?"  I gave him "the eyebrow", and he gave me "the eyebrow" back.

He said, "You know, you go and make up this day, and if you don't scrap at least one digital layout...that's pretty f'ed up."

I think he might actually be right.  I will make it a goal to scrap at least one layout.  Lord knows I have the digital photo stash to supply inspiration!

How about you?  Are you going to be digi-scrapping?