Love is in the Air...

Happy Valentine's Day! Love is in the air. My God-daughter Brittany and her boyfriend Michael came to visit for the weekend and HE PROPOSED to her as a surprise while they were here....It was all so romantic. Henry and I were honored and inspired by all this.

I think I remembered how to post video again, so here is her big moment. We were at Oceanside Farmer's market where Brittany had been on a treasure hunt through the vendors for love notes from Michael. With each note she got a gift from that vendor--everything from ceramic pieces to Girl Scout Cookies and flowers. The last vendor, What a Cookie, did a custom set of conversation hearts designed by Michael for Brittany.

Our final stop on the walk through the market was at a demonstration by BAGSTERS of hand painted tote bags. They showed one that said Valentine's Day 2009 Brittany and Michael. Then, she flipped it over and the other side said "Will you marry me? Michael" The video picks up right there.....

Our Dream Wedding friends from Channel 12 were there to capture the moment and it aired three times yesterday! We have captured that video too and will upload as soon as Sir Henry gets something or other that he needs to make the transfer. He's at the store now.

Sir Henry played our wedding video again for me for Valentine's Day and we all got teared up AGAIN. I realized this one had never gone up on the blog so I put that one and this one and one longer one of the engagement on You Tube today too.

TV Footage of the engagement on You Tube: http://www.oceanside-farmersmarket.com/

You Tube to Brittany's interview --I've got to find a new camera woman though... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5NAudZ0jA5E

You tube to Our final Dream Wedding broadcast--http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yhh3wYXIbr8

Special thanks to: Oceanside Farmers Market in Lake Worth with Peter Robinson, manager and Lady Godiva, the sweetest Greyhound this side of heaven.

Bagsters-Handmade tote bags at the market every Saturday--tell Leslie and Dianne we sent you!

What A Cookie-Incredible custom designed cookies for every occasion at the market on Saturdays and available for online ordering. http://www.whatacookie.biz/ Tell Leah we said a sweet hello and pet Winston if he's around.

A bit different for me

I sure hope this photo gets a line around it when published--otherwise it is going to look like I a really odd layout. This week I decided to attempt to use more white space in my layouts. I wanted to step away from the ink smudged over lapped designs of the last few weeks and see if I could use a sketch that made me a bit uncomfortable to consider. The sketch was from So Sketchy blog http://sosketchy.blogspot.com/

I love the ribbon, the bright colors, the photos, of course, just make my heart sing. Because I still refuse to use a ruler--it's not as straight as the sketch. However, it wouldn't be mine, and it wouldn't be as happy if it were completely aligned.

The bird die cut from Sizzex really did well on this layout. I hadn't used it for anything but cards since I bought it before Christmas. The patterned paper is from K & company and the ribbon was bought on eBay for my wedding decorations and repurposed here--I love that.

New Flight Plan

This is how it happens-----------------
I almost started a new blog this week. These ideas kept going through my head about art, crafting, and scrapbooking. Information overload, product influence, artist dates, mail art, insider art and outsider art, onward ad nauseam.

I’ve been doing a bunch of online research for my articles on digital scrapping and just to jump start my own work. I keep changing my mind about wanting to submit for publication and join design teams or just continue working on my own path. I’ve been frustrated by seeing a lot of the same things over and over and by the product driven nature of the paper crafting industry.

During this process, I read several posts on Scrap Smack blog http://scrapsmack.blogspot.com/ about some of these same topics. The author manages a message board too and she doesn’t mince words when it comes to her opinions. I respect anyone who feels strongly about a topic whether or not I agree with them.

The posts on her blog brought me to question the current trends in paper crafting. I also started going back to how I became so passionate about all this.

Crossroads--------------------
This week I feel like I’m at a crossroads. I am weary and travel worn from visiting too many destinations and not staying long enough at any of them.

My goal is to get back to doing things in a way that makes me happy. I will continue on this colorful, creative journey that has led me to so many wonderful people and places, yet I will also get back to doing it without as much influence from the retailers or the artists who are acclaimed as trend setters by corporate owned magazines and web sites.

Let me guess, many of you think I’ve always been a bit quirky anyway, and you’re right. However, in my own mind, I had become too critical and too quick to compare myself to others.


The Flight Plan------------
>This revelation has just formed in my unquiet mind and I’m sure I will think of more additions to this new flight plan, however, here are my ideas so far:

>I will create with two priorities in mind—my loved ones and my own artistic journey.

>By June 09 I will inventory and arrange my studio for optimum creative operations.

>Effective immediately, I am hereby gleefully putting myself on a $15.00 per month “austerity plan” for supplies and tools. That should be enough for adhesives, cutting blades, and those fun little deals that are too good to pass up.

>By June ’09 I will cheerfully reduce my inventory by either usage or gift to 50% of its current size. It makes no difference whether I could “do something” with it at ‘some point” or not…I just don’t want the clutter anymore.

>I will rejoice in the art as well as nurturing the community of cherished art friends that have enhanced my world as a result of this continuing journey.

>Instead of creating a new blog, I will add additional posts to this blog labeled destination heartfelt art to share my revelations, roadblocks, and projects.

Look who tried Smilebox today

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

In my ongoing research into digital scrapping for beginners I tried out Smilebox today. My review:

Advantages to Smilebox:
** lots of templates already created using well-known designers and paper companies

**You can pick an album based on theme and number of photos you wish to include.

**It is easy and fast.

**You can add all kinds of music to play while album is running.

**The basic service is free.

**There are very thorough instructions at the end to email your creation or post it to Facebook or blog.

Disadvantages:
**it's not your design, you just put pictures and jounaling into their designs.

**There is a fee to print each album or you can sign up for their monthly service fee to print all albums

**When you use the free service your viewers have to look at ads beside your album and it won't open full screen

New, Improved, and New Again

I’ve been a busy woman on the computer this week. Prepare for information overload.

New Article: Finally, a continuation in the Quick Card Series has been published at Suite 101. I had to reactivate my writer status because it had been so long. The new topic is fast cards with stickers and rub-ons. The previous articles in the series can be linked there too if you’ve been away as long as I have….

New Gallery: On the web site I put up a gallery of the wedding and honeymoon pages I’ve created since August. I still haven’t scanned the photo guest book, but it hasn’t been completed yet either… http://www.nachattin.com/Gallerymain.html

Melting Pot Jewelry Gallery: I don’t know why the link to this gallery was not active, but now it is active and you can see samples from the workshop called “Jewels from the Melting Pot.” All the samples are pins or pendants. http://www.nachattin.com/gallerymeltingpotjewels.html

Cards: I have some February birthdays to honor and I’ve been making cards this week. The cupcake one is using leftovers from my most recent Pine Cone Press club kit. (I’m still following the Within Reach Doctrine this week). The accordion step card was inspired by a tutorial from Split Coast Stampers. http://www.splitcoaststampers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=389752 The tutorial here will link you to their gallery and more.

Tutorial: I’ve started a series on the website about digital paper crafting. The introduction page is up with a link there to the first section on Cameras, Scanners, and Folders. I have been unable to find a resource that combines digital photo improvement with digital scrapping and I get asked about it all the time. I hope to get the cropping and lighting section up this week. http://www.nachattin.com/articledigitalovervw.html

New Product: My delightful friend and Pine Cone Press Club leader, Lynn Barwald, got me hooked on a new tool this week. Check out her website and more information on PCP here http://www.barwald.com/luckycharmcrafts.htm The tool is called Fingertip Craft Knife by Fiskars. The loop slides on your finger and gives you amazing control. I’ve tired a lot of craft knives and always come back to my faithful straight blade X-acto™ but now I am a changed woman. http://www.michaels.com/art/online/displayProductPage?productNum=sb0778

Freebie: Lisa Vollrath is offering great images for Valentines Day that you can print and/or save to print. Have some fun! http://countdown.tentwostudios.com