Scrap-a-Ganza Wrap up Part 1

Hey all,

I thought I'd tell you about the rest of the weekend, so here goes. I'll continue from Friday afternoon. If you want to read about everything that happened before, please click on the link Part One above.

Afternoon & Evening
After collecting everything from the registration desk, we decided to put our goodie bag in our room and go and find a place to eat. We hadn't checked the goodiebag yet, because we had no time……..

Diner
Last year we had eaten in the Bistro bar from the hotel and around 5pm we decided to go there again for our diner. It's a lovely little place. We did warn the waitress it was possible that several people would come to eat there and they all needed to be finished before 7pm. Last year they really had no idea what happened! This year it went great! Mom, Bianca and I took the same dish (Chicken sate, for me without the sauce: allergy for peanuts). All in all we didn't have to pay much and it was a very good meal! AND, we were lucky, because when we left everyone else was told the kitchen was closed. Can you believe that? Oh well, for us it worked out okay!

Speed Scrapping
After we'd had our diner, mom and I need to be in the workshop Speed Scrapping at 7pm so we went upstairs to get our bags. Although it would take some time, we decided to wait a little for the elevator instead of hoisting everything downstairs.
Jodi Holbrook and the other Jodi (I'll tell you her name later on. Can't think of it right now....) hosted Speed Scrapping. And Jodi Holbrook did this in a very speedy way! Okay, she told us she'd first explain several things and then we could work on the four layouts, because we had the examples in our workshop description. But she went very fast! It was fun though! We learned to work with the Making Memories Punchers. The die cuts you get out of them, can be perfectly used in the rims you can use with the Making Memories Tag Maker. Because these tags literarily made the layout, this is indeed a very speedy way of scrapping. It's fun to do too! It wasn't at all what I had expected when I choose the workshop. I expected we would be working with precut borders, photo mats and more things like that. This was a very nice twist!
Although I found it very fun and indeed very speedy, I don't think I will be using these things a lot! It's just because of the fact I'm always using a lot of photos in my projects and a lot of interactive things. One (or two) of these tags is funny to include, but it's usually way to little to cover everything I need.
And guess what? Both Jodi's signed my album and my mom and I had our picture taken with them. How's that? I'm so happy they both wanted to sign my album! And they thought I had done a great job with the album too. What better compliment can you get? I was very happy with that compliment.

In Between
After we were done, we had some time left before we had to attend the workshop "About Me". We couldn't enter the workshop room yet, because there was still a workshop going on, so we decided to go and sit somewhere else. We had a nice chat with a few people.

About me
This workshop was being held in the biggest class room. As it turned out, the big class room was really necessary. There were a few hundred people participating in the workshop. I think it was a lovely workshop! All the kits were handed out and then Lisa told something about how the kit came together, what everything means and much more like that. I loved her story! It really gave me an insight in the kit, one which I wouldn't have had if I had only bought the kit and nothing else. I know there were people who thought this was more the "About Lisa" class, but I think they just didn't (want to) understand the whole story behind it. She was telling things about herself, because she wanted to explain things.
After she had told everything, she explained things about a few pages. The kit that comes with an album in a box and lots of extra goodies! I didn't mind the fact that I had to pay another 10 euros for this class as extra fee. It was well worth it.
At the end of the workshop Lisa wanted to take some time to meat all the participants and shake their hands. Because I also wanted my album to be signed by her, I just waited, together with Bianca and my mom. There were so many people who wanted to meat Lisa, have her autograph and a picture taken with her, that it took quite some time, but I didn't mind the waiting. In the meantime I met Lisa's sister, Angela, who's a very lovely lady! She had a great deal of patience with everyone and was really interested in people, just like Lisa. She even signed my album. By the way, she can start as a designer right away! I'll definitely remember her! I also met Kerry (I can't remember her last name right now, I'll give it later), one of the designers for Cricut. Kerry signed my album too! Angela and Kerry both signed on "the last page" because I didn't have a page for About Me. After all, I didn't know if I even could do this workshop. I'll make a special page for these two autographs.
Finally around 12PM we had our chance to have our picture taken with Lisa and to have her sign my album (on the page for "My simple Truth"). This was so great! Just like Angela and Kerry, she was impressed with my album. It's fun to see that something I'm not particular impressed by, others think is wonderful. I mean, my album is okay, but for my feeling that's it. For me it's not outstanding or something like that........ Maybe I just expect too much of myself. Anyway, I'm glad they all signed my album and I'm very glad I waited for it!

The rest of the evening
I was supposed to meet several members of the Scrap-a-Ganza Forum to exchange our friendship cards. However I was just to tired, as were Bianca and my mom. That's why we decided to make a quick round by several shops and then turn back to our hotelroom to go to sleep. There were several good shops and I saw a few things that I had on my wishlist. I didn't buy them at that moment, however. I decided to wait and think about it for a day before making the final decision to buy them. After all, the Crop-a-Dile and the Xyron Design Cutter are not cheap. All though the cutter was now relatively cheap for half the price. That was interesting!

This is it for the Friday. I'll let you know more about the rest later on!

BTW, photos will follow later on. I still have to upload them here :)

Thanks for reading and Have fun!

Babbled by Ilse at 9:21 AM in Category: Jodi Holbrook , Lisa Bearnson , mini album , Scrap-a-Ganza , scrapbooking
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Hey all,

I've been to Scrap-a-Ganza this weekend! It was great! I went with Bianca and with my mother. As I told you before I managed to finish my SAG album just in time Friday Morning. I had hoped to have it finished earlier, so that I would have had time to also finish all the forum friendship cards, but due to a migraine on Wednesday which made me really sick, I hadn't had time to work on anything that day. So I had to do the last things Thursday afternoon (I took the afternoon off) and Friday morning. It turned out this was the only way to get my album finished. However, I still hadn't finished the forum friendship cards. I did that this weekend. But let's recap the weekend, shall we? I'll do it in several posts, so that you can easily follow it. Let's start with Friday.

Early morning
After I had had breakfast with James and he had left for work (at 06:30 am), I started working on the SAG album again. I wanted to finish that before I went for grocery shopping. I was lucky and had the album finished around 09:00 am. Now that that was done I could concentrate on other things.

Last minute photos
I had taken two photos from myself one week earlier and had sent them, along with photos from my scrap studio, to Pixum. These two photos were especially for the forum friendship cards. Remind never to wait for the last minute to do this! Really...... It's not worth all the trouble. I can guarantee that! Why? Let me tell you? Although the package with my photos should have been sent on May 28th (according to their system), it wasn't sent until May 30, so it hadn't arrived Friday morning. Because of that I had to to take the two photos for the cards with me on a CD to have them printed. I had never worked with one of those printing machines in a shop and now I had to learn how to work with it while I had to do all the other things too! I went to our local supermarket, cause I knew they have such a printing machine. I thought it couldn't be hard, right. Just put the CD in, give the order and have everything printed. Right! Note to self: Read instructions properly before asking on of the employees for help!!!! Anyway, I started up everything and put the CD in the place where I thought it had to go. And surprise, surprise, it wasn't working! So I called one of the employees to see if she could help me. Well, no surprise there, she didn't quite know how it worked either. In the end she managed to have my CD getting stuck in the machine and she had to call someone else for help. So, someone else came. She explained me that the machine had been put there without a proper instruction for all employees, so she didn't knew much either, but she'd try to help me. First she got the CD out. Then we started the process all over again. Right then I happen to notice I hadn't read the instructions correctly and instead of putting the CD in the DVD-Rom drive I had tried to put the CD into the whole where the burned CD's would come out. Can you imagine? Anyway, continuing, everything seemed to okay, finally. I could order 12 prints of each photo, I paid and I waited. To my horror I discovered there were only 6 prints per photo printed. Can you imagine??? Not only had I had paid for 24 photos in total, I really needed those 24 photos too! So I called the employee who had helped me last time again and ask her to fix this. She started calling the service desk from the machine and in the meantime she checked the machine. It turned out, to my shame, there are two compartments where the photos are coming out. How the hell was I supposed to know?!?!?!
Anyway, in the end I had my 24 photos and I could finally started my shopping. Just to be sure I bought a roles of double-sided too, so that I'd surely had enough and then I went home at 10:15 am. I stored away all the groceries, took a shower, packed my tool-tote (read: suitcase) and backpack (with my clothing and other things) and lastly I prepared everything for lunch. After all, my mom and Bianca were coming over for lunch and then we would leave for SAG from here.

The Afternoon

The trip
After our lunch we packed everything in the car and we went to Egmond aan Zee where SAG would be held. At such a time you check everything three times and you still have the feeling you're forgetting things, but we decided to ignore that feeling. According to our checklist we had everything, so the whole event should go well for us.
The trip took us two hours. We expected to have traffic jams, but we were lucky. We hardly had any and we could easily continue to Egmond aan Zee. The only thing we regretted, was the fact we had forgotten something to drink for in the car. But we got over it :)

Checking in in the hotel
We arrived around 15:30h. Last year and the year before that we could easily park on the parking lot from the hotel. After driving around the upper parking lot we saw no place there. We hoped there would be a place on the lower parking lot, but someone else came from there and told us there was no spot either. So, what do you do then? We had quite some luggage and we wanted to park the car for the weekend. That's why I went to the hotel reception to see if they knew where we could park. The girl at the reception told us there's a temporary parking lot ("laden en lossen" in Dutch, it means something like packing and getting things out) where we could park the car, but she advised us to regularly check if there was a spot on the parking decks left. I told her there was no way we could do that, after all we would be in workshops all weekend and we simply wouldn't have time to check for a new parking place. She told us to take our chances and that's what we did. We parked the car on the temporary parking lot and got our things inside.
Unlike last years the registration desk for SAG was downstairs instead of in a desk we passed on our way to the hotel reception. So we decided to check in in the hotel first, so that we could leave our luggage in our room and then go to the registration desk from SAG. We got a nice three-persons room (it looked the same like the one we had last year) and we put all our luggage inside. And just to be sure, I immediately checked the window to see if we could properly open it. Well, we could, but it wasn't ideal. We decided to keep it shut for the moment and see what we'd do in the evening.

Checking in for Scrap-a-Ganza
Last week I had been thinking about following one extra workshop. I had seen the About me Book kit from Lisa Bearnson and Lisa was at SAG to give exactly that workshop on Friday evening. It's a two-hours workshop. In the end I finally decided that, if there would be places left for this workshop, I would follow it. I had mailed Scrap-a-Ganza to ask if I could reserve one extra ticket, but they told to take my chances at registration, because I couldn't register online anymore and they couldn't register me for that workshop through e-mail either. So while we were walking towards the SAG registration desk I was keeping my fingers crossed for the possibility to follow this workshop. Downstairs there was quite the line for the registration desk. It turned out most people in line needed to check in before they had Karen Burniston's workshop that afternoon. Thankfully it didn't take really long, so it was our turn to check in. I got lucky cause although I was told I had to pay another 10 euro's for paying through Paypal, apparently their administration wasn't in order and I didn't need to pay it. (TELL NO ONE!!!) No complaints here :) Of course we got our goodiebag and an envelope with all the tickets for the workshops, the make & takes, breakfasts, lunches and diner. After that we checked for extra workshops. Bianca wanted and extra workshop for Saturday afternoon and mom decided to take the "About Me" workshop too. Bianca already had booked this workshop, so the three of us hoped we would all be able to follow the workshop. And guess what? We got lucky! Mom and I got the last two tickets for About Me and Bianca was able to do one workshop extra with me!!! We were really happy with this! Of course we had to make sure we had all the necessary tickets, so we sat down besides the registration desk to check our tickets. They all turned out to correct, so no problem there :)

Okay, I think this is enough for now. I'll get on in another post! Talk to you later!

Babbled by Ilse at 12:15 PM in Category: Lisa Bearnson , mini album , Scrap-a-Ganza , scrapbooking
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Hey all,

I'm back from Scrap-a-Ganza. I've had a wonderful time, did about 11 workshops (I included one extra Friday evening) and had lots of fun. I'll tell you all about it later, cause it's going to be a very long story!

Last Friday morning I did manage to finally finish my SAG album, so I took it with me too. Didn't journal in it yet, but all the teachers signed it! Yeah for me! Once I've included all my photos I'll show it to you!

Talk to you later!

Babbled by Ilse at 10:43 AM in Category: mini album , Scrap-a-Ganza , scrapbooking
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Hey all,

It's only fifteen days till Scrap-a-Ganza!!! I'm so looking forward to it! This does remind me that I have to ork really fast now. I still have my SAG album to finish and I want to make my Scrap studio album, so that I can participate in the contest. It would be fun!

In the meantime I'm going to pack everything I don't need until SAG, so that I'll have everything ready. And I'm going to make a shopping list of things I want to buy at Scrap-a-Ganza. I know the Crop-a-Dile will be for sale. Although I have a very good eyelet setter, it is my understanding that the Crop-a-dile will cut through chipboard and several layers of cardstock like cut through butter. That does come in handy! You can do this with the Silent Setter too, but it does take more power and a bit longer.

So, here's my Scrap-a-Ganza Shoppinglist:

• Crop-a-Dile
  
• Book Binding Tape
  
• Chipboard figures
  
• Chipboard Alphabet letters
  
• At least two pizzaboxes filled to the brim with Scrapbooking stuff (maybe even more......).
  

Do you happen to have any suggestions of scrap supplies to buy? Things you think are great and at least worth to have a look at? Let me know!

I'll keep you informed about the progress I'm making with the mini albums :) I might break the night tonight and just keep on working at the SAG mini album. I really want to have it finished this week! Luckily I have a few days this week, so I have four days to work on it. Should be enough, shouldn't it?

Talk to you later!

Babbled by Ilse at 12:41 PM in Category: Scrap-a-Ganza , scrapbook supplies , scrapbooking
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Hey all,

I've been working on my Scrap-a-Ganza album again! I've scraplifted a few ideas from Club Scrap Raps which I thingk were wonderful interactive ideas. And I've scraplifted a few other projects I saw in magazines as well :)

Departure
First let me show you a little something I made for our departure:
As you can see I've made something with a lot of wholes in it. Can you guess what it is? And I've included two things of which each contains one list of things I need to pack. If I don't make these lists, I'll be sure to forget something. I haven't told you about a nightmare I had this week, have I? I dreamed I was at Scrap-a-Ganza and somehow I was part of the organization crew (sounds fun, doesn't it?). We were at some bar in the hotel (it didn't look like any bar I've seen there, but never mind that....!) and I looked in my suitcase and my backpack to grab something out of there. I had my big suitcase with me, which was the one I AM going to take with me, and I have my backpack with me. At that point I noticed I hadn't packed several things, like my nightgown, my toothbrush, my medicine..... Well, just go back and get them, right? At least that was what I thought in my dream and what I told other crew members. But I was told I couldn't leave at that moment to get them, I just had to wait. I checked some more and for my horror I discovered I had forgotten my Scrap-a-Ganza album, the one I've been working on for weeks. And somehow, at that, moment I realized I couldn't go back to get all my things, because I wouldn't be back in time for my first workshop. Can you imagine my panic? Luckily I woke up and found myself lying in bed with a little bit more then a month to go before our departure for Scrap-a-Ganza!!!!

Arrival
Anyway, let's have a look at the next Sneak-peek. I think you all can see what this is. I had four brown shipping tags attached to each other and I used these to make this little tag accordion booklet. The cardstock is from the Friendship kit from Club Scrap. The fibers are from knitting wool I have at home. I just love fibers! You'll find more of them in upcoming scrap projects! And I need to thank the inventors of double sided tape. This tape is really coming to my rescue for this album. Since I'm using envelopes instead of page protectors, I need to tape all the pages to the envelopes. It's not good enough to do this with my Pritt tape runner. It just won't hold good enough. Especially seen the fact I'm using so much interactive things on my pages, which makes quite heavy......

Here's another look on the tag accordion booklet. This sticker represents the suitcase I'm taking with me. To be honest, it doesn't like it will be enough, but does anyone care :) I'm not sure what I'm going to include in the booklet. I'm thinking about some small photos of our hotel room. And some journaling Or maybe one big photo. The fun thing with this booklet is that I can use both sides, which makes it easier for me to include more photos. Knowing me, that might come in pretty handy :) Once it's all finished I'll show you the complete picture, but that's something for when SAG is finished..........

Speed Scrapping
This is something for my first workshop, Speed Scrapping. I won't tell you exactly what it is. I will tell you that this holds several things. This is one project I scraplifted from Club Scrap. I've used the Time & Space kit from Club Scrap, that's all I'll tell you about it :) I know I've been busy with it quite some time to get it all the way I wanted it to be. I had never made this project before. Since it didn't seem that hard to make, I just took measurements from my page, after all I need to know that the project I made will fit on the page. Once that was done I could make everything. It DID mean, however, that I had to make a few things myself, for which the people from Club Scrap used standard things, but that was okay. I like to make things myself! This project will hold at least one photo, one supply list and the description of the workshop. It's so fun to make these interactive things! And here's another sneak-peek of the same project. I liked the way I could use the hour-glass. I just hope the ribbon will hold. I've first stitched the whole, before I used matches to finish it. As it seems now, it will be enough. I can only hope it won't wear out through the years, but we'll see about that:) I've used embroidery threads to attach the hour-glass. I've attached it slightly turned. This way it's also turned in the whole, so that it won't go out of it, until I actually turn the hour glass. At first I wanted to use a button, because that would be so much easier, but when I came up with the idea of the slightly turned hour glass, I thought that was much better. This hour-glass emphasizes the idea of speed scrapping. After all, with this workshop we're going to scrap four pages in one hour. Can you believe that? I think we'll be using a lot of pre-cut things, like borders and photo mats. That's really a way to save time. However, I usually like to think of things myself and adjust everything to fit with my photos (at least as much as possible). Although I do have an idea of how this could be done I am curious to see how Jodi Holbrook (who's giving this workshop) is actually doing it. Maybe she has certain techniques that come in really handy! I'm looking forward to it!

Okay, this is the last sneak-peek I can give you at the moment. This is also for the workshop Speed Scrapping. The four little square wholes do mean something. You'll get to see that later on, once the album is really finished with the photos. This project is also a scraplift from Club Scrap. I've used a translucent cardstock. I really had to be careful or the cardstock would really tear. I teared it alright, but the place where I teared it, isn't in plain view, so that's not a problem. I just hope it won't tear any further in the future....... I already have an idea of what to include in this particular project. I just hope I really have a chance to "make that".........

More?
This is it for today. I have made more pages, but I can't show you them yet. These are pages you should see once the photos are included and not any time sooner. Maybe I'll show more sneak-peeks of new projects in this album tonight or tomorrow! Thanks for looking!

Making the album
While making this album, I'm glad I sketched all the pages when I started with this gigantic project! Now I don't have to think about the layout anymore. All I need to think about it is whether I want to include an interactive element and if so, which element I want to include. It does make it a lot easier, or at least less time consuming as I'm used to thinking about a layout sketch for quite some time. Sometimes I'll browse for an hour or more through a magazine or a book, just to see if I can find something to fit my needs. Scrapbooking is not always easy and it's certainly time consuming, but I love it!

This is it for now. Talk to you later!

Babbled by Ilse at 12:20 PM in Category: events , interactivity , mini album , Scrap-a-Ganza , scrapbooking
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Hey all,

My free gift from Scrap-a-Ganza arrived today! It's a very nice package, although I haven't got the slightest idea what to do with it at the moment. It's all pink as you can see! James and I don't have children, I'm not really pink minded and my scrap studio is in nature colors, more specific in green. Making a pink album about my scrap studio is not something I like....... Oh well, I'll find a solution!

Talk to you later!

Babbled by Ilse at 4:29 PM in Category: Scrap-a-Ganza
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Hey all,

As I told you last week, I want to record what I scrapped every week. So here's part 2. I've done quite some scrapping and I'm very pleased with it. Here's an overview.

• I've searched for ideas for interactivity in my projects (hidden journaling, hidden photos). I've found a few ideas from Karen Burniston, as I stated earlier.
  
• I've finished the two-page layout for the workshop "Weather comes to mind" or "Seasons" (as Karen calls it herself). All that's left to do now is to add the photos. That will have to wait until Scrap-a-Ganza is finished. I intend to use one photo transfer (to packing tape) on this layout. I think it's a fun technique. I've never tried it before, but I've seen examples in several books. I'm going to try this with a few old photos first, before I'm going to do it with a SAG photo :) I've included several interactive things in these layouts. You've already seen one of them as a sneak-peek. I've also included two inserts for the envelopes. One of these inserts is meant for photos of the end result. The other is meant for photos from the class and journaling about it.
  
• I've finished the Weekend schedule layout for my Scrap-a-Ganza album. I've included one interactive item here.
  
• I've made tabs for all the layouts in my Scrap-a-Ganza Album. I've used the Pen Tip font again and printed everything on paper. I've glued the paper to a transparency. After that I adhered the set to proper pages.
  
• I've finished the inside front cover.
  
• I've finished the layouts and inserts for our trip TO Scrap-a-Ganza.
  
• I've been trying out some new interactivity ideas. There fun to do. I'll show the results later on!
  
• I've been testing the fibers / ribbons in jars.
  

Well, that's it for last week!

You wanna play along? Write your list on your blog and leave a comment here or include your entire list here in the comment!

I'm looking forward to your scrap results! Talk to you later!

Babbled by Ilse at 12:04 PM in Category: interactivity , Scrap-a-Ganza , scrapbooking , sunday scrap list
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Hey all,

I've got a few Sneak-peeks from my Scrap-a-Ganza album especially for you. I'm not gonna show all the pages in their entirety, but I thought it would be nice to show a few extra things!

This is the album I've made seen from the below side:
I guess it's obvious that the pages and the covers together are too much for the book screws. Once I have all the pages finished and I know how thick the book really is, I'm going to look for new book screws or an alternative way of binding it. Maybe the hardware store has something I can use!

This is something I've made on the inside front cover. I'm not telling you yet what it is. You may guess for now. Just leave YOUR best guess in the comments! I will tell you this: I had stamped one letter on this thing and once I started pasting the other letters (they're stickers) I found out I had left to little space for the last letter. That's why it's dangling on the ribbon under the word. I think it's fun to see. And because the things I've pasted the letters on is.... thicker (I'll give you a hint: I need to put a few things in it), the "s" really bungles instead of being fixed. What do you think of it?

Here's I've described something. Can you guess what it is? And why is the photo turn there. Give you best guess in the comments! I'll give you one hint: It's not "just" as an embellishment. Any ideas? I'll just hear it then :)

And last but not least, this is one thing I'm particular proud of! I've thought of it myself and figured out how to make it myself. This is so much fun. Can you guess what it is?

It so much fun, working on this album. I am glad I have the book "Pockets, Pullouts and Hiding Places" because this really gives me ideas for interactive things in my album. If you'd like to have it, go to Amazon. I've found it so very useful! You'll find many great idea, like library pockets used in a whole new different way, pull outs you'd never thought about and much more! And don't forget the detailed instructions that comes with every example and the perfect templates in the back of the book. I'm so glad I bought it! And I'm so glad I asked Karen Burniston last year during Scrap-a-Ganza if she'd have suggestion for books about interactive things. She's the one who recommended this book to me. And she's attributed to this book! It's wonderful!

Well, this is it for now. I hope you enjoyed the sneak-peeks I gave you. Let me know what you thought I've made! Talk to you later!

Babbled by Ilse at 4:30 PM in Category: mini album , Scrap-a-Ganza , sneak-peeks
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Hey all,

I'm waiting for my SAG - registration gift to arrive. My mom already received it. I hope it will go alright this time, instead of last times :). In the last e-mail the SAG-team sent, they stated you could ask for the status, so I did. I hope they can send it soon.

In the e-mail they also said there are at least two contests:
#1 Can you brag about it? Sure.

Free gift contest. Let us see your nearest and dearest in your brag book. We love these brag books! It's a great way to keep those photos you want to show off in a scrapping kind of way, plus they stay protected in that highly fashionable leather album. So much fun.

#2 Scrap Space & Obsessions contest

WANTED: Scrap room and scrapbooking obsessions! We want to see your scrap rooms and scrapbook obsessions; we want you to create a scrapbook layout / project that shows us your scrapping space. The rules are we want to get to know the scrappers behind the person. Are you a tidy scrapper, are you super organized? Is your craft room a total mess? Do you have an obsession with ribbon or paper? We want to see the extremes of your hobby. We will have 15 prizes to give away to the most extreme scrappers. You will to submit your layout / project upon registration, so that they can be displayed during the weekend

To top it all, SAG announced there will be more contest, but "they'll keep their POKER FACES on about it". I guess this has something to do with Heidi Swapp, as she has something new with cards. I'm curious!

Talk to you later!

Babbled by Ilse at 4:10 PM in Category: contests , Scrap-a-Ganza
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Hey all,

Although it will be still several more weeks before Scrap-a-Ganza actually happens and before I can really show you my entire album, I thought I'd give you a few sneak peeks. These are all from a layout about the workshop "Weather comes to Mind" (or Seasons) with Karen Burniston. I'll tell you all about it later on!

Thanks for looking!

Babbled by Ilse at 5:36 PM in Category: mini album , Scrap-a-Ganza
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Hey all,

I've been working on my Scrap-a-Ganza album again! Yes I do continue with it :grin:. Right now I'm working on the layout for the workshop Weather comes to Mind with Karen Burniston as the teacher. I'm going to include a few things she's already learned last year and the year before about interactivity. And on top of that I'm doing a few extra things. I saw one interesting thing on one of her projects that I want to include here too and I have one fun original thing of my own.

Once I've finished this layout, I'll start with the beginning of the album. As I told you before I've already chosen the paper line I'm going to work with, Basic Grey's Urban Couture, and I want to see where I can place the papers. The beauty of the measurements I have is the fact that I can use one paper twice, instead of having remaining pieces after this project is finished. I do however think I will be needing more then I have right now. So maybe I have to open up another package. Or maybe I'll just use something completely different........ Don't know yet :)

Anyway, this is it for now. Talk to you later!

Babbled by Ilse at 4:41 PM in Category: Scrap-a-Ganza , scrapbooking
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Hey all,

Yesterday I've done quite a few things for my SAG album. I've been looking through the last magazines again and found two more ideas for interactivity. And I've made a design sketch for all the layouts in the album. I've roughly said where I want to have what. Of course it still can change, but this way I've lined it all out and now I can really start making the pages. I don't want them to look all the same, so I tried to vary things throughout my album. That way it'll all still be interesting, or so I hope anyway.

And today I've started with the layout for my weekend schedule and a few more things. I've really got the feeling I'm progressing right now! I love it!

To top it all SAG had added more descriptions and I found the supplies list for Weather comes to Mind from Karen Burniston. It's good that I found it, cause now I know I have to take at least 1 cd with me. Just an empty one, nonetheless it's good to know!

I'll give you a few sneak peeks later on!

Talk to you later!

Babbled by Ilse at 12:58 PM in Category: Scrap-a-Ganza , scrapbooking
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Hey all,

I've gone through my stash and I've found no suitable embellishments for my SAG-album. I've been checking online stores here in the Netherlands, but I can't seem to find anything here either. That's why I decided to seek another solution. I've heard people talking on list about JoAnn.com and scrapbook products there, so I decided to give it a try. Since I had a fun experience through Coupon Chief I wanted to see if I'd find a discount coupon there. And boy, did I find nice JoAnn Coupons there. What about 20 % off from the total order? Or 50 % off one item? It's very nice! I've seen several I like. I'm going to think about it some more though. So many things to choose from! It's hard to make a good choice. What do I need now and what might be useful later on but not necessarily now....... Choices, choices.

And not only am I looking for embellishments, but I'm looking for ideas for interactivity in my album too. That's why I decided to look for an Amazon Coupon too to see if Amazon has new books with this subject. I found a nice coupon for free shipping and went looking. Unfortunately I didn't find anything there that was appealing to me at the moment, but I have bought several books there already that were really useful. So I'm keeping my hopes up and I'll check back regularly.

Let me know if you have any ideas on this subject!

Talk to you later!

Babbled by Ilse at 5:38 PM
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Hey all,

I've been browsing through dozens of magazines, but up until now I've hardly found any new ideas for my SAG album. I'm really looking for new ideas for my album, but it's not that easy. I found out the people who submit pages to Creating Keepsakes are not really into interactivity (at least so it seems) and even in the dutch magazines I haven't found many new ideas. It was mostly more of the same I was already using. So, it's not easy..... I'll have to think of new things myself. Oh well, let's get on with it, shall we?

Or at least I'm going to do that :)

Talk to you later!

Babbled by Ilse at 2:41 PM in Category: interactivity , Scrap-a-Ganza , scrapbooking
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Hey all,

I've been working on my Scrap-a-Ganza-planner last weekend. It's becoming more and more an album instead of a workshop planner. I've decided to include virtually everything about the weekend. I've planned in chronological order (I've got a tick for that!) starting with our trip to Hotel Zuiderduin and ending somewhere with the diner and trip back on Sunday evening (or afternoon.....).

I've already made the front and back cover, at least the basics of it. Now I have to embellish it. I'm still thinking about that. I hope to find some ideas on the internet and in magazines I have. I've already browsed through the gallery of Two peas in a bucket (at least through the hundreds of layouts that have been uploaded the last 24 hours) and through several hundred of layouts at Scrapbook.com. So far I haven't found anything useful. I was looking for mini albums, but I haven't found many of them.

And because I'm really into interactivity in my albums (see our Italy album for several examples of that and our Switzerland album for that matter) I've been browsing the above galleries with the subject of interactivity in the back of my mind too. Although I've seen hundreds of layouts, there were hardly any, what I call, interactive layouts. You know, the ones with the pull-outs, sliding things, turning, hidden and more. And just when I was looking for new ideas for the SAG-album! Can you believe that?! I couldn't. So I decided to pull out several books I have as well as my stack of magazines to see if I can find something new there.

And concluding....... I still can't show you anything, because of the simple fact that I have nothing to show yet. And on second thought, maybe I shouldn't show the album yet once it's finished. Maybe SAG will hold another contest, like they did last year. And I'd like my album to be a surprise. That would be fun, don't you think so? If they're indeed going to do another Planner contest, I'll give you sneak peeks until I can show you the entire album. That's a promise!

If you happen to have examples of interactive things or nice examples of front covers of mini album, please send them to me at ilse at ilsesjournal dot com (or post the address here in the comments). I'd highly appreciate it! I'm always looking for new ideas.

Thanks again and talk to you later!

Babbled by Ilse at 5:18 PM in Category: mini album , Scrap-a-Ganza , scrapbooking
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Hey all,

I've been watching the Scrap-a-Ganza for my mom and YOU CAN NOW REGISTER!!! Go ahead and have fun. Hope to see you in June!

Babbled by Ilse at 12:59 PM in Category: Scrap-a-Ganza
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Hey all,

A few things keeping me busy today :)

SAG 2007
I've been checking my mails and the SAG site regularly now for news about SAG 2007, but so far there's still no news for the "newbies". When it's open, I'll let you know immediately!

My new greeting cards
I got a message from Vistaprint, telling me that my greeting cards have been shipped. So, I hope I'll have them in a few weeks. That way I can include them in my Forum Friendship Card swap. I've already made a design for it. Now I'll have to try it out. See if that what I have in mind will really work... but first.......

My scrapstudio
I'm still not done with my scrapstudio. This is mainly because I was too tired to work on it the last few evenings. My work has been really hectic the last few weeks and it's draining my energy. Have to think of a way to make it better.......... Back to the original topic: My scrapstudio. Right, I have bought several new jars for all my embellishments. I thought I had enough of them. Better yet, a few of them were still empty and that came in handy for the future. But then I found out I had completely forgot one drawer that has tons of embellishments in it! So, I went back to the store in my lunch break and bought several new jars including a few big ones to hold all my ribbons and fibers.
This does mean I have to move around a few things again. Now I'll need two shelves with embellishments instead of the one I had in mind. But that's okay. Now I'll finally be able to see them and thus use them :) I do have to find another place for other things though :)

Well, this it for now! Talk to you later!

Babbled by Ilse at 9:21 AM in Category: Scrap-a-Ganza , scrapping , scrapstudio
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Hey all,

While I was cleaning up my closet a bit further yesterday evening, I found an old box with greeting (or business) cards which I use for RAK's and other scrapping things. These cards had old information on them. The design was not the problem, in fact it was very nice. But the cards stated my old website and e-mail, so I decided to get new cards. I've heard about people using coupons for this, so I thought I'd give it a try. As we in the Netherlands:
“Niet geschoten is altijd misgeschoten”. If I’d translate it, it would mean something like, if you haven’t bought the ticket, you surely know you won’t win a thing.

On Coupon Chief site I found a 75% reduction Vistaprint coupon. I have ordered my previous greeting cards there and for Scrapping Memories I’ve ordered Business cards. My experience with them is very good! And with the coupon it went perfectly fine too! This is really a good finding! I know Vistaprint delivers great work. If you don’t mind waiting a few weeks for your order, you can have it shipped cheap. If you really need a rush order, you’ll pay more, but you’ll have it shipped in no time. The quality of their products are also very good. That’s why this company is one of my favourites! And shopping with coupons makes it even more attractive to shop with them!

So, if you need greeting cards (or stationary or anything like that), I’d recommend Vistaprint!

Since I don't need the cards right now, I choose the option to have it delivered in about three weeks. That's soon enough. I think I'll use them in my Forum Friends Swap book too. That way it's easy to exchange information and I'm sure the others can read everything properly, without having to decipher my handwriting. :)
I did choose a different design then last time, however. I wanted to have something different and the design I choose this time is really wonderful!

Talk to you later.

Babbled by Ilse at 4:07 PM
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Hey all,

Early this morning I received an e-mail from the < A href="http://www.scrap-a-ganza.com" target="_blank">Scrap-a-Ganza (SAG) Team telling that I could finally register for SAG June 2007. All the Scrapbooking Diva's from November 2006 had a preregistration first the last few days and now it's the chance for all the scrapbooking Diva's from May 2006. In a few days all "Virgin" visitors (those who haven't been to SAG or those who weren't a diva previously) can register.
I'm just so glad I can finally register! Not all the classes are ready yet, so I cannot book my entire schedule, but so far I've booked the following classes:
Friday, June 1, 19:00h: #5 Speed Scrapping by Jodi Holbrook
Saturday, June 2, 09:30h: #6 Scrap & Flip by Jodi Holbrook
Saturday June 2, 13:00h: #16 X-Static by Emilie Adams
Saturday June 2, 16:00h: #25 My Own Truth by Lisa Bearnson
Saturday June 2, 19:00h: #29 Chinoca Moments by Melodee Langworthy
Saturday June 2, 20:30h: #8 Like water, Like Chocolate by Lance Anderson
Sunday June 3, 09:30h: #17 Weather comes to Mind Part 1 by Karen Burniston
Sunday June 3, 11:00h: #18 Weather comes to mind Part 2 by Karen Burniston
Sunday June 3, 14:00h: # 20 Fu-Fu Funicular by Jen Starr
The ones in bold are the ones I really don't want to miss! So these are here to stay in my schedule. Last year I had 10 workshops. Maybe I'll have more this year, but I don't know yet. I'll just see:)

For this year I've set myself three tasks:
1. Make a Workshop planner
2. Make a nametag
3. Make a forum friendship swap book
I guess these things don't really mean anything to you, so I'll explain it to you ;)

1. Workshop planner
Last year in May SAG held a contest for the most beautiful planner. The idea for planners originated at the Scrap-a-Ganza Countdown Forum and the SAG organization included it in SAG as a contest. I saw so many beautiful planners there that inspired me that I decided to make one for myself for this year's SAG. I have three months left to make this planner,s o I'd guess that's more then enough to have it finished, don't you think? Once it's done, I'll post photos in the gallery!

2. Nametag
This was an idea from the countdown forum as well. To be able to recognize people and to make it easier for our teachers everybody was asked to make a nametag. All the teachers would choose one winner in the every class. My nametag wasn't really anything last year, so I decided I'd make a good one for this year. I'm not sure about the size yet, but I'll just see what to do with it :)

3. Forum Friendship Swap Book
I'm participating in the Countdown forum (just as a poster :) ). Eveline (the moderator) came up with a great idea! We'd swap friends cards so that we're reminded about who's who and to stay in touch. I think it's wonderful idea. Many people are going to use a standard Maya Road binder (4" x 4"). I think I'm going to make my own album. That way it's something special. For this year the album is supposed to hold 18 cards (for now) from the forum friends. I think I'll just make a book for every year or for more events. That way I can keep everything together and it's fun! I do have a few ideas for this book. Maybe I'll try out a few things first, before I make the final one for SAG.

Well, this is it for now. Talk to you later!

Babbled by Ilse at 11:38 AM in Category: events , Scrap-a-Ganza , scrapbooking , scrapping
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Hey all,

It's time for a little reflection, I think. I've been busy yesterday and I'm waiting for more news about a certain event.

Scrapstudio
I've been working hard on my scrapstudio yesterday. I couldn't believe how much trash I've collected in one year time. It's very good that I had planned to rearrange everything. This forces me to clean up and throw away things that are really trash. And no, I'm not throwing away scrap supplies. I hang to these until, in a few years time, I have finally seen the light and discover that I don't these particular peft overs (*grin*).
Anyway, as I said in a previous post, I needed to move several things to other (shorter) shelves in my closet, because these things were weighing too much for the long shelves. I'm in the middle of that process now and it's going okay. I do need to find a proper place to store all my albums, though. Right now I'm keeping them all in the scrapcloset, but that's not an ideal solution. The shelve for those albums is full, so I need to look for something else....
During the move, I'm also moving embellishments from the vegetable jars into the new jars I have bought. I will keep the vegetable jars, though. You never know what they might come in handy for! I'm trying to arrange the embellishments by colors and sorts. I'm storing all the ribbons and fibers from one color into one jar. That way it's easy to find and I think the different shades of that one color do look very nice! There's so much left to do. I think I'll be busy with it this whole week every evening. Well, I do have to work in daytime, so unfortunately I can't work on my scrapstudio during the day........

Scrap-a-Ganza 2007
About two weeks ago we received a newsletter from the Scrap-a-Ganza team telling us they were really busy organizing the event for this year and that they hoped to have the site, including all the workshops, ready about the middle of last week. Scrap-a-Ganza is from June 1 up to June 3. It all begins Friday evening and it last until Sunday late in the afternoon (well, at least that was the case last year).
Those of use who have been to Scrap-a-Ganza previous editions have a week of pre-registration. That's awesome of course! But, we have to register AND PAY before March 15 to receive a registration gift. And this is not only thruth for the early birds, but also for all the others who want to come. So, right now we're living February 26, the site still isn't done and the registration deadline for the gift hasn't changed yet. How are they going to do that? If they're taking a really long time to finish the site, the ones who can't register now, won't even have a chance to register and pay in time for the gift. That's not fair!
I really hope they'll have the site up and running today or tomorrow and that they will extend the registration deadline. It's only fair to the others.
Anyway, Bianca and I are going. And my mom is coming too! Anyone of you going? It would be fun to actually see some people who read my blog. Let me know!

Commenting
Just in case I wasn't clear in one of my previous post. You CAN comment, but all comments have to wait for approval by me at the moment. Don't think I won't do it, 'cause I love getting comments, so I'll approve them and try to answer to all your comments! But it may take a few hours up to a day until your comment has been approved. If you have a Typekey identity, please sign with that and once you've finished your comment, please push "post" instead of "preview". That way I can set you to "Trusted commenter" and all your future comments will automatically be displayed.
Sorry for the inconvenience, but this is the only work around I know at the moment. I hope someone in the Movabletype community can help me with the particular problems I'm having with the comments.

Talk to you later!

Babbled by Ilse at 8:00 AM in Category: Scrap-a-Ganza , scrapping , scrapstudio
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Hey all,

I attended Scrap-a-Ganza this weekend. It's the second time I've attended this event.
I have had a lot of fun. I had 10 workshops. Most of them included techniques I had never used up until now. I selected the workshops specifically on that. It's a bit too much to describe everything in English, so I'll just keep it at the fact that I have had a great time and I'll go again next year! For those of you who can read dutch, please read that version. It's a very long journal of my scrapbookweekend! Maybe I'll translate it into English later on.....

Have fun and see you later!

Babbled by Ilse at 10:12 AM in Category: Scrap-a-Ganza
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