Angie Pedersen's The Blog of ME

Using Visual Diaries To Find Inspiration

In 2001, Becky Higgins released My Creative Companion, a binder containing a wealth of inspirational ideas for layout sketches, embellishments, lettering, journaling, and other creative resources.  She released Volume 2 of her Creative Companion in 2006.  Here's another idea along that line, from Digital-Photography-School.com: Using Visual Diaries To Find Inspiration for your Photography.

It’s easy to get stuck in a rut with your digital photography - always photographing the same subjects, from the same angles, in the same mood, in the same style etc...

I was speaking with a semi-professional photographer recently about her work and how she kept it ‘fresh’ and she answered by pulling out a spiral bound art folio. At first I thought it was an album of her work but on opening it I discovered it was a scrapbook - filled with images that others had taken. This photographer had gotten in the habit of cutting out images that inspired her from newspapers, magazines, advertising brochures, postcards etc. She even printed shots from online to stick in her visual notebook.

What an interesting idea!  I've saved hundreds of sketches over the years, but haven't noted interesting photography shots or cropping detail.  Have you done anything similar to inspire yourself to try something new with your photography?

Scrapbooking End-of-the-School-Year Memories

The Legacy Project has posted a downloadable worksheet to help capture the past school year - anyone see scrapbooking potential here??  Star Highlights - www.legacyproject.org.

Use the Top 10 sheet to make a list of the top 10 moments or memories of the past school year -- a test you did really well on, something you enjoyed learning about or thought was interesting, a new friend you made, a class trip, a personal achievement like making the basketball team. These moments twinkle like little stars and are the highlights of your school year.

Be sure to check out the other resources available in the Legacy Project's Activity Center.  There are activities centered around Memories & Traditions, Crafts & Keepsakes, and Scrapbooking & Other Photo Fun, as well as other themes.  One that is particularly Book of Me-friendly is Genetic Ingredients.  I created a scrapbook layout version of that for Growing Up Me, but ended up not using it.  I should dig it up and post it.

NSD Scrapbooking Tshirts

In honor of National Scrapbooking Day on Saturday, I thought I'd share some cute scrapbooking gifts/gear I found on CafePress.

Survival Skillz, 2.0

Wow.  (Or should I say, "W.O.W.")

Link: Boy Saves Sister from Moose Attack with Skills Learned in Warcraft Video Game.

Between Boy Scouts and a level 70 Orc Marksman-Hunter, my son is SET for survival skills!

DIY Home Decor Project: Flower Power Waste Basket

How cute is this??  The Crafty Chica comes through again with an adorable home decor project: Flower Power Waste Basket.

Just had to share.  Very easily customizable to coordinate with a scrap room! :)

Review: Designing with Type (by proxy)

I stumbled across good review of Autumn Leaves' Designing with Type on the IdeaBooks4u blog.  I was really impressed with the layouts done by the IB4U design team, inspired by the book.  Just gorgeous eye candy - combining all the different fonts.

The IB4U blog post hints at the creative prompts offered in the book - fontaholic that I am, I will probably *have* to check out this book!  Seeing the various options for jumbo numbers on a page got my scrap mojo goin'!

Scrapbooking Resources at Amazon

Have you seen the cool new widgets from Amazon?  I like the 3D carousel - very cool look!

New (to me) Font Site: Allie Hoopes

Via my friends at Scrapbook University, a link to a font site/blog that I hadn't heard of, if you can believe it - Allie Hoopes' Free Handwriting Fonts.  How can you go wrong with someone who describes herself as "part nerd, part Martha, part sparkle butterfly fairy princess"?  Cute cute stuff.

And yes, Allie makes fonts of your handwriting - $5 a font.  Such a deal.

Photojojo's Photo Time Capsule

Introducing the Photojojo's Photo Time Capsule -- from their newsletter:

...So we’ve been working on something new called Photojojo Time Capsule, and we’re really excited to release it!

Every couple weeks, Time Capsule digs up your photos on Flickr from a year ago, choosing the ones that are most interesting (most views, comments, and faves), then sends them to you in a quick email.

We’ve been using it for a while, and it’s amazing how nostalgia-inducing it’s been to get a little time capsule every couple weeks. :)

I see that scrapbooker Tonya Doughty (aka GauchoGirl) has already signed up.

Pity the Scrapbook Widowers

A rather humorous feature article by Julia McKinnel: Scrapbook widowers get unglued | Macleans.ca.

"...Back in Holland, Bubbah has detected a worrisome link between women who scrapbook and women who wear Crocs, and has started an offshoot site called Scrappers with Crocs. Meanwhile, the Scrapbook Widower has launched "a serious investigation into the relationship between scrapbooking and the quality of the sex life of scrapbookers and their partners." Sixty-one per cent of respondents identified with the answer, "Oh God, I can't even remember the last time we had a 'lay down' instead of a 'layout.' "