Amy's Serendipidous Adventures

Kit used: Season Sampler - Amore
by Shabby Princess
www.shabbyprincess.com

I feel like I am REALLY starting to get the Digi Bug.

No, this is not another new virus, but it sure is a sickness...lol. I don't really have much to show for it, but I love collecting all the freebies that I find on the internet. I wish I had more time to play around with all my digi supplies. I am still doing a lot of traditional scrapbooking, but will hopefully be finishing up my 2006 pictures soon. Once I do, I will have to either print more pictures or get into some digital layouts. I might begin doing some hybrid scrapbooking, which is BOTH! YEAH!!! I can't wait!!!

If you'll remember from this post, I had a hard time getting this layout to look good with journaling. I have re-done it yet again...let me know what you think!

BEFORE:

AFTER:

I got the idea for this album at Colorful Creations in Hyannis, MA. I saw their version of the book and I just knew that I HAD to make one for my dad. This was supposed to be his Father's Day gift, but it took me longer than I expected (don't all my projects?). Anyway, he just got it last week for his birthday. To read more about his birthday, see this post. The album is made out of old vinyl records cut in half and held together with two binder rings. This has got to be one of the most creative scrapbooking projects I have ever done!!! I LOVE IT!!! I'm not sure if dad is actually going to get to take it home ;-)

Well, it was nice to take the summer easy and I actually did accomplish quite a lot. But, now it is time to get back to the grind and start getting things crossed off my list.

This month, I have the following goals:

• 2006 family album
• Back-up blog
• Kaitlyn Memory Frame
• Start Photobook from Cape Cod vacation 2009
• Order photos for a mini album that I am working on
• Scrapbook at least once per week, Friday night.
• Continue learning Adobe Photoshop

Same as last month :-)

I only have one this month: SIMPLICITY

I have been doing a lot of thinking lately about how I can SIMPLIFY my life and I figured that I could eliminate the pressure I feel from having such intense scrapbooking goals every month, so I am taking a month off from my "goals", not from scrapbooking. I love this hobby, but I have somehow turned it into a mission and I just need to relax and regroup for the summer.

Not much progress this month either...

• Continue progress on 2006 family album – Still In Progress
• Journal Kaitlyn's 2nd album – Didn't touch this one.
• Move Kaitlyn's video from external hard drive to DVD. – Still In Progress
• Lake George Photobook from summer vacation 2008 – In Progress
• Continue learning Adobe Photoshop – In Progress
• Back-up blog- DONE 6/7/09
• Scrapbook at least once per week, Friday night. - Done most weeks.

Jessica Sprague is offering a FREE Photo Editing Class for Adobe Photoshop! I HIGHLY RECOMMEND HER CLASSES!!!! For more info, click the image below.

I have to admit, it is taking me a REALLY long time to get through Jessica Sprague's class "Now We're Rockin' with Photoshop". This is not because her class is difficult, she does an exceptional job at walking you through each lesson, but I just can't seem to find the time to sit down long enough to do it!!!

Anyway, this Lesson 2 layout was inspired by the layouts in the July 2009 issue of Creating Keepsakes (pages 37-39). I loved the idea of using screenshots on a digital layout and what better layout than one about my obsession with the internet :-)

I have created two different layouts...one with journaling and one without. I think the one without the journaling looks better, but the one with the journaling explains what each website is. I would love some comments on your thoughts about which layout to keep and which to toss.
Thanks!

Mostly the same as last month.

• Continue progress on 2006 family album
• Journal Kaitlyn's 2nd album
• Move Kaitlyn's video from external hard drive to DVD.
• Lake George Photobook from summer vacation 2008
• Continue learning Adobe Photoshop
• Back-up blog
• Scrapbook at least once per week, Friday night.

OK, I did REALLY poorly this month on my goals. I think it's because the nicer weather is here and I would rather be outside playing and taking pictures than sitting in my windowless basement scrapbooking...lol.

Anyway, here's how it went...

• Continue progress on 2006 family album – In Progress
• Journal Kaitlyn's 2nd album - Didn't touch this one.
• Move Kaitlyn's video from computer hard drive to external hard drive & backup on DVD. – Moved most of the digital videos from hard drive to external hard drive, still need to back-up 2008 on DVD. I am having trouble with one HUGE file. It won't copy over so I have to splice it up and it takes a while to do because the files is so big.
• Lake George Photobook from summer vacation 2008 – In Progress
• Continue learning Adobe Photoshop – Didn't touch this one.
• Back-up blog - DONE 5/5/09
• Scrapbook at least once per week, Friday night. - Done most weeks.
• Maintain journaling - Again, there wasn't any to do because everything was on the blog...lol. I guess I can remove this one from my monthly goals :-)

This month, I want to continue the progress with my backlog of photos, but I also want to move forward with a project that has been put aside since last summer...a photobook from last summer's family vacation!!! I also discovered that upon "finishing" my daughter's first years worth of pictures that there were about 250 pictures that I never printed from Shutterfly...ARGH!!!! So I thought I was done, but I'm not. I haven't quite digested that enough to deal with it, so for now, I am ignoring the problem :-)

Here are this month's goals...

• Continue progress on 2006 family album
• Journal Kaitlyn's 2nd album
• Move Kaitlyn's video from computer hard drive to external hard drive & backup on DVD.
• Lake George Photobook from summer vacation 2008
• Continue learning Adobe Photoshop
• Back-up blog
• Scrapbook at least once per week, Friday night.
• Maintain journaling
  

This was a pretty productive month. I got 95% of my goals completed and I feel I can finally add some new projects to my goal list for next month :-)

• Start 2006 family album – In Progress
• Journal 1 of Kaitlyn's albums – In Progress. I completed my portion of the album, but I am waiting for some journaling from her father & grandparents.
• Organize Video of Kaitlyn – DONE 4/11/09
• Stories to Tell – Jessica Sprague class – assemble album - DONE 4/9/09
• Continue learning Adobe Photoshop – Ongoing process
• Back-up blog - DONE 4/4/09
• Maintain journaling – Again, there wasn't any to do because everything was on the blog...lol.
• Scrapbook at least once per week, Friday night. - Done most weeks.

My goals this month are still fairly similar to last month. I am still trying to actually COMPLETE some things that have been lingering since January (i.e. organize video of Kaitlyn). I am looking forward to completing these things and adding some new projects next month!!!

• Start 2006 family album
• Journal 1 of Kaitlyn's albums
• Organize Video of Kaitlyn
• Stories to Tell – Jessica Sprague class – assemble album
• Continue learning Adobe Photoshop
• Back-up blog
• Maintain journaling
• Scrapbook at least once per week, Friday night.

I am hoping to get to a few crops this month so hopefully I will make some progress with my pictures from 2006...I am a bit behind :-)

Overall, I feel very good with everything that I accomplished in March. I got MOST of the big "TO DO's" done.

• Finish scrapbooking Kaitlyn’s first year - DONE 3/29/09
• Journal 1 of Kaitlyn's albums – Still In Progress.
• Organize Video of Kaitlyn – Still In Progress. But I did make some headway with this. I got everything from VHS tape to DVD and everything that was on the camcorder over to either DVD or stored on the computer. Now, I just have to organize the video on the computer and get it on DVD... phew...PROGRESS!!!
• Stories to Tell – Jessica Sprague class – assemble album - Didn't touch this one.
• Continue learning Adobe Photoshop – Ongoing process.
• Back-up blog - DONE 3/2/09
• Scrapbook at least once per week, Friday night. - Done most weeks.
• Maintain journaling – There actually wasn't any to do because everything was on the blog...lol.

Finally, my first Layout from Jessica Sprague's class "Now We're Rockin' with Photoshop", Lesson 1.

One more layout from my Adobe class: Up & Running With Photoshop. I STILL have not started Digi Part II (it started at the end of January)...sigh. Again, thank goodness it is all stored online and I can pick it up at anytime!!!

Many of these goals are the same as last month, but I have limited myself from adding anything new in hopes of being able to get through some of the things that have been on my goal list since January (i.e. organize video of Kaitlyn).

I am also looking forward to a crop weekend March 20-22, so I am hoping to get done scrapbooking Kaitlyn's first year!!! That will make 4 albums for her first year of life...kinda nuts :-) Then, I have to go back and actually journal all the albums.

• Finish scrapbooking Kaitlyn’s first year
• Journal 1 of Kaitlyn's albums
• Organize Video of Kaitlyn
• Stories to Tell – Jessica Sprague class – assemble album
• Continue learning Adobe Photoshop
• Back-up blog
• Scrapbook at least once per week, Friday night.
• Maintain journaling

Not a bad month overall - I am SO happy to have Katlyn's first Christmas scrapbooked, now if I can just get done with her first year (see next month's goals :-)

• Back-up blog - DONE 2/2/09
• Finish scrapbooking Kaitlyn’s first Christmas – DONE 2/21/09
• Journal 1 of Kaitlyn's albums – Still In Progress
• Organize Video of Kaitlyn – Still In Progress
• Continue learning Adobe Photoshop – Ongoing process
• Stories to Tell – Jessica Sprague class – print journaling prompts – DONE 2/2/09
• Scrapbook at least once per week, Friday night. – Done most weeks.
• Maintain journaling – DONE 2/27/09

Finally - I finished my digital scrapbooking class!!! This is the layout I completed for my Adobe class: Up & Running With Photoshop - Lesson 4 Part II.

Now, I can move on to the Digi Part II class I signed up for that started 2 weeks ago...sigh....thank goodness it is all stored online and I can pick it up at anytime!!!

Starting where I left off in January - most of my goals are the same...lol.

• Back-up blog
• Finish scrapbooking Kaitlyn’s first Christmas
• Journal 1 of Kaitlyn's albums
• Organize Video of Kaitlyn
• Continue learning Adobe Photoshop
• Stories to Tell – Jessica Sprague class – print journaling prompts
• Scrapbook at least once per week, Friday night.
• Maintain journaling

We'll see what this month brings...

I got a good amount of my goals done this month. I wish I had gotten them all done, but life is just crazy sometimes!!!

• Back-up 2008 photos on DVD - DONE 1/7/09
• Back-up blog – DONE 1/3/09
• Organize video of Kaitlyn – Still in progress
• Finish scrapbooking Kaitlyn’s first Christmas - Still in progress, I got through Christmas Eve.
• Try something new – DONE, in the process of learning Adobe Photoshop/Digital Scrapbooking
• Scrapbook at least once per week, Friday night. – DONE!
• Maintain journaling – DONE!

This is the final lesson in Jessica Sprague's - Up & Running With Photoshop class. I have enjoyed this class so much that I have signed up for Digi Part II. That class is called Now We're Rockin' With Photoshop! The class started on Monday, but I wanted to finish up Digi Part I before I started the next level. I am looking forward to getting started!

For this lesson, I created a layout in honor of our dog, Lady:

I think I am totally addicted to Digital scrapbooking....

If you are at all interested in learning about Digital Scrapbooking, I would HIGHLY recommend this class with Jessica Sprague.

I am not sure what I am going to do with all these layouts, but I certainly am having fun learning!!!

The world through Amy's Camera Lens!

This year, I am challenging myself to take a photo a day in hopes of not only capturing a full year of daily memories, but also to improve my photography skills.

Check out my new blog:
http://amysphotoadayproject.blogspot.com/