Last post here

I have found a site specifically for scrapbooking, so I am not going to use this blog any longer.

Halloween

Today I spent about 5 hours 'setting up' pages for Halloween pictures taken between 1982, when my first was born, to 1996. I already had them in a book, but I never liked the way the pages were set up. I actually didn't spend a solid 5 hours on this, of course. While I was printing out pages of elements and backgrounds, I was cleaning the house. The kitchen looks fine, as does the living room. I made my bed. Oh, and I colored my hair this morning before I even got started. After I was all through, I drove my son to college. I can't wait until he gets his license, because I seriously HATE driving. His road test is on November 10th.
This is one of the pictures I'm rescrapping. I hope I haven't already published this picture in my blog, but she's cute enough to show up twice, isn't she? That's my daughter when she was just a little younger than one.
I have each page and all its elements in a plastic page protector, so when I actually sit down to do them, everything I need will be at hand. Hopefully, I will have some time tomorrow, after I spend the morning at the doctor's office having a stress test for heart palpitations. If I didn't have to drive 22 miles a day, I wouldn't have them, I think.

More on the xmas book

The paper doesn't go through my printer. What kind of paper doesn't go through a printer? It's stiff and it gets stuck. I had to get a pair of pliers to yank the paper out. So I will use my own paper, do 2 printouts per page and cut out the 5 x 7s. That is, when my printer decides to stop being a d*ldo--it keeps telling me I don't have a scanner connected. Riiiiggght. After I scanned about 20 pages the other day! Over there to the left is one of the pages I scanned. At some point, I plan to redo a lot of these pages, but I think I'll keep this one. It's pretty good for a simple page. It is Jamie's First Christmas!

Christmas Book

I'm using Epson's Storyteller Publisher to put together a bound book of Christmas pictures. You drag and drop into templates they give you, print out the pages, and put them into a book with a cover on it. So far, it' s easy, but I haven't actually tried to print anything out yet. I'm just experimenting at this point and will do any printouts on draft paper. I don't have 38 Christmas pictures loaded into my computer, at least not that I like a lot, so I'm scanning pages from old albums. Then I crop out the photos I like and save them to use in the book.
Okay, I don't know why the page printed 3 times. This is one page I scanned to use the photos. I did this a long time ago, so it isn't as good as some of the pages I do now. I'm thinking about re-doing this whole album. There are so many nice papers and embellishments out there!

Blackout creativity

It's been raining like Noah's Flood for the past few days. Today was the worst, almost torrential. I'm glad I didn't have to drive my son to college (my husband did), so I could relax. The power went out at 10 a.m. and didn't come back on again until 2-ish. So what do you do without electricity? No sewing machine, so forget working on the little outfit I'm making for my nephew. No computer/printer--so no scrapbooking. Couldn't bake anything--electric oven. I sorted my coupons and I made myself a BLT--cooked the bacon on the barbecue, in an all-metal pan. Came out pretty good. I started to work on a blanket I'm making for my baby nephew, but I wanted something different to do. So I got out my biggest crochet hook and started to make a scarf with some very soft yarn I have. I think it's boucle, not sure. The blue on the edge is slightly different from the blue in the main part. The dark color is actually purple. I did about 15 rows. I made it too wide, though--20 stitches. I think 12 or 15 would be plenty wide enough next time I use this needle. The pattern is a repeat of 2 doubles and 1 single/1 double. I'm not following any particular instructions, just 'winging it.' I hope to finish it by the winter!

Maximum DPI

I put some photos I was to print out on maximum DPI and it is so slooowwwww. But the pictures sure look good.

There is a 60% off coupon for Michael's. Debating whether I have the energy to go buy something. My back hurts and it is raining.

Sans Computer

I had been without my computer for a few days as we switched my daughter's bedroom with my office. I'm back, but my son has borrowed my printer so I can't even print or scan anything. But at least I can get back to my writing again. I just did some editing this morning, nothing really new. Slowly but surely the book is coming along. I got a royalties statement yesterday for my children's books and made exactly 0 dollars...which is okay because I already earned out my advance, and then some. I'm just kind of pissed that bookstores are sending the books back. You see the dumbest, crappiest children's books that stay on the shelves for years. So why do they send back mine? They are historical novels; that might be the reason. Even the Dear America series, which was so big for a long time, is not that noticeable. I think the current trend is fantasy/magic, but I'm not going to write for that genre. By the time I got the book done, something else would come along.
Actually, what I would like to see in the adult market is another good horror story. Now that Stephen King is in retirment, there seems to be no hope for the future of horror, at least in the book industry! At least movies are still going strong!

Pet Pages

Don't have anything scanned to show, because my office is in a shambles--my daughter is still working on re-decorating it. I'm just glad my computer is still connected. I decided to open up an old photo file and work on photos I've had in the computer but havnet' scrapped. Going in order, I found some pet photos to scrap. I'm picking out colors from papers I downloaded from sites that give away free scrapping stuff. These papers often include matching embellishments, so it makes page-creating a LOT easier.