The Toy Collector

I've created several layouts about my toy collection: one about my kaleidoscopes, another about my toy typewriters, and several more about individual toys. I've been wanting to do one about the extent of my collection, but I just have too many things to really do it justice. I'd love to, someday, tell some of the stories about the various toys in my collections. Some were my childhood toys. Some came into my possession in interesting ways. A few are valuable, most are not. But they are fun to look at, but not to dust. Actually, I've pretty much stopped collecting. That time is past. But I'm not quite ready to sell, or part with my toys. A few have been boxed up, ready for eBay or garage sales. But I still love to look at them- the graphics, the colors, the cute doll faces, the chunky, retro look of so many of them. They still make me happy!

Weekend Thoughts

This has been one of the craziest weekends of all time- now that I'm back working full-time, I have less and less time to do my creative projects. I haven't taken more than a couple dozen photos in the last few weeks, and my scrapping mojo is on hold... lots of ideas, but not a lot of time to do 'em.

I did have one big project this weekend. It was our Primary Presentation today, and although I'm the Primary Chorister (our Church Childrens' organization) I volunteered to take on a huge project in addition to the Big Performance. I offered to design & print the programs, which consisted of a 4 page program (cover, and separate inside program). The presidency took photos of every child, and wanted them all on the cover! 75 kids, wow, that was some project! It certainly put my layers abilities to work to keep track of each child's photo. Of course, I had to keep the design very simple, since the emphasis was on the kid's faces. Plus, there wasn't much time for design work. So, I did the best I could, and spent all day Saturday designing and printing up several hundred programs. I ran out of ink at 2 am, and had to print only enough programs for the parents and teachers of the kids. But even after all that, it all turned out great! They performed beautifully, and all the parents were so proud of their little ones. Directing the music was the least of my concerns after the horrendous night of trying to get the programs done. I had a nice nap after church, and am now almost back to normal. I even had time to do a little layout this evening to celebrate Brady's arrival in our family.

Bragging Rights

She's pretty much the cutest li'l gal on the planet, she's my little grand niece Nikki, and last night Mom, sister Lynne & I went to Beverly Hills to visit Nikki and her brand new little brother Brady. Brady was the star of the night, but Nikki, who loves the camera, was in fine form. Layouts to come!

Weekly Rant!

I've been thinking really hard about what to do this week for my rant... I have SOOOOO many things that bug me, but after discarding idea after idea, I came up with my ultimate dissatisfaction with the digital scrapping industry. Here it is: The Digital Scrapbooking Industry. Yep. The whole shebang, the websites, message boards, galleries, magazines. Etc. and etc. Actually, there are a few exceptions: classes, tutorials, helpful message boards with genuine help being sought and given. So, my real issues with the digital scrapbooking industry are mostly about the enormous business it has become, when there really needs to be no business at all. In my dreams, digital scrapbooking is a place where people who love to share their memories come together to share their ideas, suggestions, and layouts. In the Digital Scrapbooking World of my Dreams (hereafter referred to as DSWD) people's blogs would be full of interesting layouts, photos, and stories. Maybe some tutorials or tips. But now when I go to some of my favorite bloggers' sites, they are totally full of PRODUCT! Freebies! Downloads! Kits! Ok. I guess I shouldn't be too hard on them- after all, we all love to make a little money, and these folks are very talented. I think what drives me up the wall is that I just don't see the point in so MUCH stuff! It isn't all about the bloggers, it's also my favorite website, which is, after all, a business, and needs to sell stuff to stay afloat. It's just that in my DSWD all the stuff is left for the traditional scrappers, and we Digi Scrappers rely on our imaginations and the power of our software.
It is obvious I'm being totally unreasonable and insane. Of course, designers need to sell their products and promote themselves as designers. Of course digital design is the PERFECT way to distribute said designs & products- no expensive packaging, no inventory, no warehousing, no shipping hassles- just a click of the mouse & a little charge on the old Visa, and the product is instantly OURS. I have no idea why it bugs me. But it does. End of rant.

I LOVE my toy!

One of the scrapbook blogs I participate in is called 'It Takes All Kinds'. Here's the link:
It Takes All Kinds
I love my iPhone, and if anyone tried to take it away from me, I might have to get violent. It's truly almost as fun as scrapbooking! My favorite thing is that I have created a slideshow of my layouts and favorite photos, and I look at them all the time. It's sickening! Plus, there's the texting, and the YouTube, and the games, and the weather, and my calendar, and the GPS. I am never bored. I am always playing with my phone! Oh, I forgot, I can actually call people on it too!

Layout Gallery

News from Home

I can't believe how lucky I am- I seem to have become the Family Photo Keeper, specifically I have tons of family history photos. I'm not sure how I got the cache of old postcards belonging to my Grandmother Martha Gruetzmacher. She was born in 1875 in Minnesota, and had a very close and loving family and group of friends. When she married in 1909, she moved to Idaho, and never returned to Minnesota. I have more than two dozen of these old postcards, many of them are known as 'real photo postcards', or photos that are postcards on the reverse side. Most of these are written by her cousins, or her dear Sister-in-law Emma Gruetzmacher. Although the messages aren't lengthy letters, they are still delightful insights into early 20th century life on the edges of the frontier. I used the reverse side of a couple of postcards to make brushes & an eraser on my layout. The stamp is original...How fun to think it was licked by Emma- an ancestor I never met!

Phun with Photoshop

I was recently asked to design a menu cover for a church dinner next weekend... the theme is "Under a Tuscan Moon", so since I don't have any photos lying around of Tuscany, I let my fingers do the walking... I found a stock photo, poor quality & resolution, and turned it into a night scene with a little Photoshop magic. Unfortunately, I had a Photoshop meltdown that night, and I lost my layered file. I wanted to tweak it a little more, but this will have to do. I added a little frame, a Dover filligree, and the lettering. I think it came out ok, not my usual style, but it works for the project.
After posting this layout, I noticed that the menu cover looks really pixelated. When you click on it, the new image looks crystal clear. Any experts tell me what's up with that? I tried redoing it, but it still looks grainy. (Thanks!)
*Update- I fixed it! Decided to upload from Photobucket instead of my computer, worked like a charm!

Whew, working full-time has really cut into my scrapping time! I used to average 3 or so layouts a week, now it looks like I can manage one. Actually, I did finish 2 this week, one is a heritage layout about my Great-great Grandmother Emeline Kent, and the other is a vacation layout from this summer. I could scrap forever, and never get the thousands of photos we took in Canada scrapped. I think maybe I have one or two more in me, then the rest of the vacation photos will have to gather dust in my computer forevermore.

Weekly Rant!

6 days a week I'm all sweetness and light. But once a week, I've decided to go on & on about some particular pet peeve or other of mine. All about digital scrapbooking, natch. I participate actively on several scrapping boards, and I'm usually helpful, upbeat and nice. But there is a giant scar on my tongue from all the tongue biting I do....since I don't want any ulcers, I'll just vent a bit here.

This week I'm going to vent about 'ISO'. That term means 'In Search Of', as you may know. When someone wants to find something, they post an ISO post, looking for the perfect whatever- owls, or soccer balls, or princess crowns, or blah blah blah. I really can understand people looking for stuff for traditional scrapping. After all, you have to buy pretty much whatever you put on your page. Unless you are a hybrid scrapper, you are at the mercy of the industry. But digital is another matter. For some reason, totally beyond my comprehension, digi scrappers want to fill their pages with pp (patterned paper) and embellishments, just like regular scrapping. I'm not against 'stuff'. I put 'stuff' on my layouts from time to time. I like that 3D look! What I don't get is why digital pages have to get filled up with 'stuff' that doesn't have anything to do with the subject of the page. Creating a page about those cute photos you took of your daughter at the park? Why not fill it up with embellies of owls and swirls? Whaaaa? I just don't get that. Ok, that's one example of ISO stuff that has nothing to do with the layout itself. (I'll do a rant later on about my intipathy towards buttons, staples & torn paper, but that's for another week). So, someone is ISO-ing about soccer balls. It seems to me the most logical thing to do is simply take a picture of your kid's soccer ball, extract it, and add it to the layout. Not only did you 'make it yourself', but you have the added advantage of knowing that soccer ball belongs to your child or team. So 10 years down the road, you can point with pride at your layout and say, 'that's YOUR soccer ball on that layout!' Not some lame downloaded ball. While you are at it, why don't you take a picture of the field, and use it as the background? So then you can say, 'the whole thing is your soccer game', not just the photos. I'm a total advocate of having EVERY SINGLE thing on my pages pertain to the layout itself. So if I want an embellishment, I make it myself from something from the event, photo shoot, or memory. If I do a heritage page, I try to scan stuff from the event scrapped. If I don't have anything, I simply scrap the photo with a simple background, the appropriate journaling, and perhaps a blended map or something. If you plan ahead, you can take appropriate photos, or scan items that you can use in your layouts. Do you know how much space you will save on your harddrive if you don't have all that CRAP on it? No organizational software! You don't have to remember all those designers names so you can credit them! (Uh oh, the designers are gonna be mad at me. But someone has to say it. I admire the talented digi designers. I just don't want their stuff mixed in with mine.) End rant!

I'm a Toys 'R Us Kid!

I've been working in the toy industry for over 25 years, and after 11 years of freelancing, I'm back working full-time. Hopefully not permanently, but it looks like this project will go on for the foreseeable future! I'm working with Judy Shackelford, one of the most respected and accomplished women in toys. She is an inventor, entrepeneur, and all-around toy genius. She's fun to work with, has immense energy and ideas, and best of all, she likes working with me too! The biggest plus of the entire enterprise, is her office is only 1.5 miles from my home. I can't tell you what we're working on, because everything in the toy industry is top-secret. It's worse than the Pentagon, but more fun. But I will tell you, I get to draw cute stuff all day, and play on Photoshop. Worse things could happen to a toy gal, I'll tell you. The only downside is I have very little time for scrapping, and working on my poor, neglected book project. I'll just have to organize my time better!

Mom and Her Cats

My Mom had a black cat named Mortimer. She's not exactly sure how old Mortimer was, since he was a 'teenager' when she & Dad acquired him. But he was somewhere in middle age when he had to be put to sleep a couple of weeks ago. Mortimer was a great cat. Since Mom is alone, it's so wonderful for her to have a companion to take care of and love. So, only days after Mortimer's passing, Mom had an opportunity to adopt not one, but two cats! A friend in our church had 2 Himalayan cats- a mother and daughter named Jasmine (Mom) and Roxie (Daughter). Mom and Lynne (my big sis) went to visit the cats to see if she could manage both cats. Mom didn't want to separate them, but two cats are definitely more work than one! The chemistry was instantaneous, and Mom brought them home the next day. I won't tell you the story about my crawling on my hands and knees through the apartment complex where Mom lives, looking under all the cars for a 'lost' cat, which was later found huddled behind the tv) but I will share this layout I made celebrating Jasmine the cat, or Jazzie as Mom calls her. Suffice it to say that Roxie and I haven't hit it off yet, and she wouldn't come out from under the bed for the photo shoot.

I can't believe it's taken me so long to get my act together and get on board the blogwagon.... I must have thought it would be really hard to do, or beyond my technical skills. Ha, simple as pie! Except of course, I didn't like any of the templates, and had to figure out how to modify this one. The funky newspaper print on either side of the screen is from an old 1880 Washington DC newspaper I have scanned. I made it my famous green color, added a couple of spots, and some texture. THAT took some serious time to figure out how to put it in. I had to actually find the proper place in the HTML edit window. Bruce says that lots of blog sites have really easy-to-edit templates. Blogger- not so much. Enough grumping, I'm pretty happy with the look.

Testing 1 2 3, Testing

Wheeeeee, I'm now officially a blogger! Welcome to my new obsession. Like I need another one! I will be posting as often as I can, and lucky you, you can read all about my creative adventures.

StefStyle will be a place where I can share my creative vision and projects. Where I can record my thoughts and ideas, and perhaps a little personal journaling. I hope you will stop by from time to time to see what I have been up to.