Thursday, January 29, 2009

postheadericon A Heritage Win



Anyone who hangs out at Meryl Bartho's Heritage Chat on Wednesday nights at The Digital Scrapbook Place knows I rarely miss that chat, for almost 5 years, now. Lately, I haven't been able to do many heritage layouts, but I attend just the same.

Finally yesterday morning I did one for her current challenge, Glamorous. The layout was in my mind and Meryl had the perfect elements for the layout. Within an hour or so it was in the Heritage gallery.

Last night it won the weekly secret vote of those attending the chat. I was, as the Aussies say, Chuffed! Meryl had some nice comments about it but I was doubly surprised when I started getting congratulations. Meryl had nominated the layout for The Hall of Fame at DSP. I was dancing around. That was a first for me.

Then I also heard that a layout of mine was on the list of "100 Most Viewed Layouts". Not one I would have guessed at all. I wonder what lists they will come up with next.

Credits
So...here is my new "Flair" at DSP.

Thursday, January 22, 2009

postheadericon A Vacation from the Vacation


We had only been in Florida for a week when I left for a laptop-crop (meeting of digital scrappers) in Salt Lake City. It was a rare chance to meet a dear cyber-friend from Oman. There were 17 of us at the crop, many who had never met before, but all friends from a digital scrapbooking web site (The Digital Scrapbook Place - DSP).

First off, I am 70 years old. To go off alone on an adventure like this amazed me. I had never seen the rugged mountains of the West except from the air on the way to California twice. I had met, in person, only two of the 17 ladies. As it turned out, every lady was exactly as they present themselves in the forums. No real surprises except how comfortable we were together from the first minute.

Ten of us met Friday night for dinner...a LATE dinner for me since I had skipped 2 time zones. Really late for the member and her children from Oman, by way of Trinidad. Their internal clocks must be really messed up.

Saturday was the 12-hour laptop-crop at the hotel in a meeting room. Most of us actually got something scrapped, but there was more talking and snacking than scrapping.
Fran, my roommate, corralled a "stranger" in the hallway during the scrap and invited her to join us to see what it was all about. She had looked SO like she belonged to our little group, especially toting a laptop. She had actually been attending a baby shower next door. It turned out that she is the author of Dear Myrtle, one of the premier heritage websites on the Internet. Many of us knew her from the blog and loved meeting her in person. If you look at my list of favorite web-sites, "Dear Myrtle" is the second one listed.


I will save the rest of the 5 days in SLC for the next entry.
Thursday, January 15, 2009

postheadericon Some Words About Bonds Among Scrappers

For the last year or two I have been writing about digital scrapping for Kathryn Balint's KB and Friends newsletter and blog. Kathryn's focus has shifted to her newer venture at the CropMom site. The KB and Friends site is secondary, now. I will spend some of my time in Florida becoming familiar and comfortable with CropMom and I hope to teach scrapping with that site to some of the senior groups down here and, perhaps, do some other work for Kathryn if I can find a niche in her new venture.

I have also been writing monthly for Stamping and Scrapping Reflections on-line magazine. Alas, that has become the victim of the volatile economy. The staff has decided to stop publication after the March issue. I, myself, had taken a leave of absence for personal issues but I was ready to return. Now, ???

So, I am a retiree once again. I'm taking advantage of the freedom of this situation with a journey from my winter home in Florida to Salt Lake City to meet with about 30 dear friends, most from the Granny Forum at The Digital Scrapbook Place. One of the ladies was to be in the Caribbean for the holidays from her home in Oman. On the way home she is taking a side trip with her children to SLC and the rest of us decided to take this opportunity to meet her face-to-face at a DSP-sponsored Laptop Crop. Yes, I WILL be taking photos and posting here.

Crops, laptop, or paper, are a tradition among scrappers. My first was in 1998 with 25 or so Michigan Scrappers...before digital. The MIscrappers group held crops for 12 hours at a time and the hours just flew by. Our host was usually The Sticker Store and More in Southgate, Michigan. When the store initiated the Great Lakes Mega Meet the MIscrappers were working volunteers. Soon the, now huge, convention outgrew the MIscrappers and the ladies scattered to other places and other ventures. Every year a few get together here and there to renew some very strong bonds.

Digital scrapping and Internet connections with other scrappers, makes getting together a little more difficult, but certainly not impossible. My virtual homes are The Digital Scrapbok Place, with over 143,000 members, and The Digital Scrapbook Artisan Guild. At any given time you will find someone logged on to the forums, galleries, or chat rooms. With members from all over the world this is great when you can't sleep. It reminds me of the song, It's Five O'Clock Somewhere.

I will try to locate some old photos from the old crops and add them to this blog entry.

About Me

Forty Years of Scrapping

Long before it was popular, I was trying to decorate arrangements of photos and sentimental items. Here I want to share some of my personal history and more important, some ideas I have gleaned from more than 40 years of scrapping.

lauraloub

lauraloub
A granny with a camera and a computer

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