Travel Workshop Report

One of the greatest joys of scrapbooking is sharing, and that was proven at our first travel crop on Saturday, July 18. It was so successful that we're going to do it again on Saturday, August 29th. Here Dawn Johnson, Melissa Fulgham's sister, holds up her last 2-page layout. New to scrapbooking, Dawn actually completed six pages chronicling her June vacation to South Dakota during her first scrapbooking round.

"When Melissa told me I would get four to six pages done today, I thought she was wrong," Dawn said. "How long does it take to put a few pictures on a page?" But Dawn soon discovered that this art form is about telling your story with pictures, paper, journaling . . . and that it's a bit addictive.

Dawn effectively incorporated maps and memorabalia into her design . . . and has committed to attend our August workshop. The rest of her designs are below:

Travel Workshop

These are four two-page spreads using CTMH's Moon Doggie (x711B) papers and Level 2 Stickease (X711c) and Journey Journaling Spots (X1409). The tropical flavor was just the right backdrop for chronicaling our first Missions Trip (2005) to Trinidad and Tobago. I haven't done the journaling on the first three page sets. The first set, "This is the Life" shows where we stayed on our visit. We were actually in an apartment above the church in Vistabella. I also included a picture of the room we stayed in and a "guy" shot -- Pastor BuddyVaughn of Middletown (DE), my husband Dave, and Pastor Andy Sandassie, our host. I believe that was a shot taken just before we went into what we would call a backwoods area to hand out fliers inviting people to church. For some reason, the guys stayed in the car while we women walked the streets passing out invitations to come to a service.

Travel Workshop

The second two-page spread was taken on our return trip from Port of Spain where we were on a Christian radio program. We took the scenic view home so we could get some pictures of the cityscape.

Travel Workshop

Besides performing a monodrama titled The Bride, I also did some storytelling while in Trinidad and Tobago, which is the subject of this third two-page layout. We visited schools, an orphanage, and local churches. The secondary schools we visited were faith-based. The morning assemblies were always short, so there was no seating available for the students. They stood. The temperatures exceed 100 degree Farenheit while we were there . . . David didn't tell me that until we returned home. That's probably a good thing.

Travel Workshop

This last of the two-page spread is a hodgepodge of representative photos of our trip. That layout uses 15 pictures and is ideal for a photo-rich event. I haven't embellished it yet and probably won't get to that until Friday night. I know for sure that I'll be using that layout in our Saturday Travel Workshop. I'm hopeing we can get as many as six pages done for the day.By the way, those last two pages were made out of Moon Doggie scraps from the Level 2 kit. I can probably get two or four more layouts from what I have left. So how great is that?Now that I have 2005 scrapped, I need to address my two trips in 2006 and one in 2007. I hope to have it finished before we return to Trinidad in September.

That's all for now. Have a great day.

GASC: My Favorite Things

Kim van der Sanden of My Favorite Things (http://www.mftstamps.com/) knows her stuff well enough to improvise after she discovered that her class instruction sheets were on the kitchen table in California instead of with her in Virginia. Since she wasn't as together as she usually is when she teaches a workshop, she asked us each to stop by her booth for a free stamp. As fun as the technices were, I was more interested in learning about the Copic markers mentioned in the classroom blurb. Unfortunately, she did not touch on that. However, she did give me a mini lesson about these alcohol-based markers and their use. These two 8" x 8" pages lack the bling I normally add, but I may punch them up a bit when I'm ready to use them. Under the circumstances, it was a good workshop which I am glad I took.

GASC: Expand It Techniques

SEI's Expand It -- Techniques was one of the first workshops I took at the Great American Scrapbooking Convention on Friday morning. Until the Stamps By Judith and Heather, it was my favorite workshop. We literally made a mini album from a single sheet of cardstock which we scored and creatively fold and adhered it to the design. The second piece was a pop-out design using creative folds for pictures and journaling. These are definitely techniques that I can incorporate into my Close to My Heart project base. My last workshop was also an SEI invention. It was a stamping in albums techniques workshop and the poorest of the five I took that weekend. Although it was billed as a stamping techniques workshop, we were told that the SEI bosses said they couldn't afford to have stamps available for every person. A fast-paced workshop in which participants were expected to complete 20 12"x12" scrapbook pages in 2 hours, there was much scrambling and little learning. The emphasis was on finishing pages rather than learning techniques. So, SEI earned high marks for the technique-driven workshop and low marks for the productivity-driven workshop. The half-done scrapbooking kit remains in a box in my craftroom. With so many projects on my plate, I have no idea when and if I'll return to it.

GASC: Paradise Found

Paradise Lost is one of the workshops I took at the Great American Scrapbooking Convention in Chantilly, Virignia at the end of June. This was a Quick Quotes kit with punch outs and paste downs. We made the suitcase book with what was left over. I took the workshop thinking that perhaps it would augment a scrapbook I'm trying to put together for our missions hosts in Trinidad and Tobago, but the colors don't compliment the pages I've already created with my Moon Doggie papers from Close To My Heart. We were limited by some of the products we could use, and the pace we had to maintain to complete the three pages in a one-hour workshop. My favorite effect was the chipbard sandals with the ribbon treatment. I also thought the suitcase mini book was rather cute and reproducable, but I don't think the protruding palm tree would hold up in a active household. All things said, it was a productive workshop which I'm glad I took.

Great American Scrapbooking Convention

The last weekend of June I got to enjoy two incredible days with my son, his wife, our grandbaby, and regional scrapbooking artists who attended the Great American Scrapbooking Convention in Chantilly, Virginia. One of my favorites was an Interactive Stamping workshops from Stamps By Judith (http://www.stampsbyjudith.com/). The above 12"x12" scrapbook page was created wth a solid heart stamp (for the butterflies and ladybugs), a solid flower, a snowflake, mini dots, a haypile, a sprig and a stick weed. We started by tearing a piece of paper in an irregular shape leaving a ragged edge. Then we placed it over the bottom of the cardstack and stamped off the edge of the torn paper. I loved the artistic approach. The cards were equally challenging and artistic. Of course, I did have to purchase some of their stamps . . . mainly the ones that we used in the workshop.I hope I have the chance to take another of Heather's workshops in the future. My husband just reminded me that it's time to retire for the evening, so I'll try to share more tomorrow. Have a great day.

Diane