Unexpected Destination | Debbie Hodge's Blog | Get It Scrapped

New Bundle of Scrapbook Page Sketches

Happy Friday! Here's a new sketch bundle.

download pdf with sketches & measurements
download zipped file with layered psd files/templates

Homemade game that makes a great gift for young children

(and that you can make with your children)

When my children were younger, we liked to have small homemade gifts for their friends who visited during the holidays. Each year we'd figure out and begin making the gifts. Usually in a small assembly-line process that we left set up for a week as we got all the work done. This game was a favorite of ours to make and play.

What it consists of:

• a decorated box or pouch
• 5 small items or toys (if you're making multiples, something you have or can get in multiples)
• photos of those toys, printed and affixed to patterned cardstock
• instructions for several games

How to make it:

• Find five small toys or interesting items and photograph them.
• Print and trim the photos to 2" x 3".
• Cut 5 pieces of heavy-weight patterned paper or cardstock to 2-1/2" x 3-1/2."
• Glue photos to cardstock pieces.
• Laminate (optional).
• Attach a folded ribbon tab (optional).
• Print the instructions (which follow below). Also available as jpg and editable psd if you'd like to personalize.
• Decorate a box or make/find a pouch and package the cards and items in it.

How your kids can help:

• They can select the items to include/photograph.
• They can take the photos.
• They can glue the photos onto cardstock.
• They could make boxes with a handy tool like "Aleen's Boxmaker" (or use the instructions below).
• They can pack things up.

Tips for making gifts with children:

• Plan and allow enough time to enjoy the process.
• Set up a work area that can stay set up for a while so that children can "dabble" at the work.
• Let the child define how much they should/will do in the making of the gifts.
• It doesn't need to look perfect. Don't redo your child's work.
• Use this as an opportunity to teach about budgeting, planning, creating in assembly-line vs. "one-off" (as they say in manufacturing) mode.

Game Instructions:

• game 1: Match It Lay out the cards and match items to cards.
• game 2: Feel It Put the toys in the box. Pick a card. Reach into the box with eyes closed and find that toy by feel.
• game 3: Order It Lay out three cards and matching toys in a particular order. After a while of studying and trying to remember this order, pick up the toys, and flip the cards. Player then lays out the toys in the remembered order. Work up to 4 and 5 cards/toys.
• game 4: Identify It Lay out 3 toys. Study and work to remember exactly what they are. One player closes eyes and the other player takes away one toy. Player one opens eyes and tries to identify the missing toy. Work up to using 4 and 5 toys, and also take away more than 1 toy.

How to make a gift box like the one shown here:

1) determine finished box dimensions:

box width W=3"
box length L=4"
box sides BS=2"
cover sides CS=.5"

2) calculate paper sizes to cut for BOTTOM of finished box and then cut
width = [ W + (2xBS) ] ex: 3 + 2(2) = 7"
length = [L + (2xBS) ] ex: 4 + 2(2) = 8"

3) score the paper BS" in from the edge on each of the 4 sides; here that would be 2".

4) fold along the scores

5) at each corner cut along one score into the point where scores intersect

6) fold to box shape, tucking cut corners in and adhering with glue dot

7) cut calculate paper sizes to cut for TOP of finished box and then cut

width = [W + (2xCS) ] + an oonch or 3 + 2(.5) = approx 4-1/8"
length = [L + (2xCS) ] + an oonch or 4 + 2(.5) = approx 5-1/8"
the oonch added is so that the cover width and length will be slightly larger that the box and thus fit easily

8) score CS" in from each edge as above; here that would be .5"

9) as above, fold in, cut once at each corner and secure

May Flaum approached me about participating in a Thanksgiving-inspired hop and I'm happy to be a part of it. Over the next week you will be able to hop around the web and find some amazing projects and stories and it’s all inspired by family, gratitude, and giving thanks. Some of us will be posting several times, others just once. You’ll have to ‘hop’ around and check what’s new throughout the week.Each person participating has the full list of attendees posted, so you can hop from one to another. We hope you find something that inspires you, sparks your creativity, or reminds you to be thankful this Thanksgiving. From our house to yours, please enjoy your week and our gratitude…

Allison Kreft Abad http://hamblyscreenprints.typepad.com/
Becky Novacek http://www.beckynovacekphotography.com
Debbie Hodge http://www.debbiehodge.typepad.com
Elizabeth Kartchner http://elizabethkartchner.blogspot.com/
Jennifer McGuire http://jennifermcguireink.typepad.com
Jodie McNally http://jodiemcnally.com
Kelly Purkey http://kellypurkey.typepad.com
Lain Ehmann http://knitandpurlgrrl.blogs.com/five_things
Lisa Dickinson http://lisadickinson.typepad.com
Liz Hicks http://blogerisms.blogspot.com
Margie Romney-Aslett http://www.margieromney-aslett.typepad.com
Margot Potter http://margotpottertheimpatientcrafter.blogspot.com
May Flaum http://mayflaum.wordpress.com
Patti Milazzo http://pattimilazzo.blogspot.com
Rhonna Farrer http://rhonnadesigns.blogspot.com
Stacey Kingman http://staceykingman.blogspot.com
Stephenie Hamen http://cropgirl.wordpress.com
Wendy Smedley http://wendysmedley.typepad.com

Make a Thanksgiving gratitude album from an old book

Use this book as a Thanksgiving gratitude book or insert a different title and use it as an album or journal. For a gratitude book, Include a page for everyone at your table and have them record what they’re grateful for this year. Later, include a photo of each person next to their gratitude. Begin a tradition -- make one each year so you can look back on your blessings over the years.

 SUPPLIES:

• an old book -- that you can take apart (these instructions are for a book @ 9” x 6”)
• 1 or 2 pieces patterned paper. I used Crate Paper from the November Work in Progress Kit. (If the shortest side of the book you’re using is larger than 6” you’ll need more paper. Get enough to cover outside front and back.)
• 2 pieces cardstock that coordinates with your paper. (White-core cardstock is the best --- it looks white when it’s sanded. Brands: DCWV & Momenta. Many heavy-weight two-sided patterend papers have a solid color side and a white core--My Mind’s Eye, Crate Paper, Prims . . .Again, if your book’s shortest side is greater than 6” you’ll need more.)
• 2 loose-leaf rings (from craft or office supply)
• ribbon -- small bits that match your papers
• font and date graphic for title
• New Cicle font 
• Stacked date brushes by Ali Edwards from Designer Digitals

TOOLS:

• cutting mat
• exacto knife
• scissors
• straight edge
• old credit card or room key for cutting guide
• sandpaper or sanding block
• strong gluestick adhesive (or whatever you have)
• gesso and paintbrush

HOW-TO:

1. Tear font and back cover from old book (use a cloth-cover book @ 6” x 9”).
2. Sand all edges of front and back cover smooth. Paint inside and outside of both covers with gesso and let dry.
3. Cut 4 pieces of white-core cardstock to size of covers. Adhere to inside and outside of each cover. Sand all edges of white core cardstock to get distressed, white edging.
4. Cut 2 pieces of patterned paper slightly smaller than front and back. Adhere centered on front outside and back outside.
5. Use temporary adhesive to temporaily adhere a credit card centered on the front cover. Cut around the credit card and through all layers to remove a block from the book’s front cover. Use fine-grain sandpaper to smooth edges of cut-out.
6. Print “gratitudes” and year to cream cardstock (see links to sources in supply list above). Place this behind the cover so that the title shows through the cut-out window. Mark edges of cover onto cardstock and cut it slightly smaller to fit inside book. Cut an inner page for each guest to same size.
7. Measure in @ 1-1/2” from each end of book cover at top. Mark 1/2” down from top and 1-1/2” in from edge. Use heavy duty hole punch (Cropadile) to punch two holes in cover. Mark the inner pages and the back similarly and punch.
8. Use binder rings to hold covers and inner pages together.
9. Tie ribbons around binder rings.
10. Place on Thanksgiving table and invite gratitudes.
    
    

May Flaum approached me about participating in a Thanksgiving-inspired hop and I'm happy to be a part of it. Over the next week you will be able to hop around the web and find some amazing projects and stories and it’s all inspired by family, gratitude, and giving thanks. Some of us will be posting several times, others just once. You’ll have to ‘hop’ around and check what’s new throughout the week.Each person participating has the full list of attendees posted, so you can hop from one to another. We hope you find something that inspires you, sparks your creativity, or reminds you to be thankful this Thanksgiving. From our house to yours, please enjoy your week and our gratitude…

Allison Kreft Abad http://hamblyscreenprints.typepad.com/
Becky Novacek http://www.beckynovacekphotography.com
Debbie Hodge http://www.debbiehodge.typepad.com
Elizabeth Kartchner http://elizabethkartchner.blogspot.com/
Jennifer McGuire http://jennifermcguireink.typepad.com
Jodie McNally http://jodiemcnally.com
Kelly Purkey http://kellypurkey.typepad.com
Lain Ehmann http://knitandpurlgrrl.blogs.com/five_things
Lisa Dickinson http://lisadickinson.typepad.com
Liz Hicks http://blogerisms.blogspot.com
Margie Romney-Aslett http://www.margieromney-aslett.typepad.com
Margot Potter http://margotpottertheimpatientcrafter.blogspot.com
May Flaum http://mayflaum.wordpress.com
Patti Milazzo http://pattimilazzo.blogspot.com
Rhonna Farrer http://rhonnadesigns.blogspot.com
Stacey Kingman http://staceykingman.blogspot.com
Stephenie Hamen http://cropgirl.wordpress.com
Wendy Smedley http://wendysmedley.typepad.com

Gratitude Blog Hop is on its way

It's coming...
Nov. 19th-25th

Why you should learn at least a smidge of economics

Neil's been grading papers and yesterday he told me about a current student who doesn't see the value in studying economics. When he came home from last night's town council meeting (which I watched on our local cable access channel) I pointed out that if this reluctant student learned some economics then he can avoid the following.

If he learns at least a little economics then he won't write and read a long and painstakingly crafted letter to his town council during public comments that advises them to: stop developing the downtown and get some restaurants that serve something other than pizza. This is not an infrequent public comment -- get us some decent restaurants!

Here's where economics are helpful. If there were profits to be made from restaurants serving something other than pizza in this town--then those restaurants would exist. There are no profits to be made from such restaurants in our town right now. How could the town create an environment that would make the existence of such restaurants possible? Hmmmm. How about with some development that brings in more people and their money?

Tips for scrapbooking 5 kinds of travel & vacation trips

The Get It Scrapped! home page is being transformed this month to offer resources for beginning and advanced scrapbookers, journalers--memory keepers in general. Here's one of the first posts -- I'm putting it here but won't always -- so if you're interested in these kinds of articles, you should come on over to the Get It Scrapped! home page and click on the link to subscribe to our feed --- and get us in your reader. Thanks.

SCRAPBOOKING 5 KINDS OF TRAVEL & VACATIONS

Chronicling your travels on scrapbook pages allows you to relive the trip even when you’re back home. Photos, memorabilia, facts and journaling impressions are all part of this.

Helpful links:
Uniting multi-page events
Scrapbook page planner for trips
6 coordinated page sketches
6 coordianted page templates (layered psd files)

While some travels are best looked at chronologically, others benefit from a “subject” approach. Consider the following types of travels

scrapbooking the Weekend Getaway

A weekend getaway can be as much about the company as the destination. It might be a short trip to hang out with friends, find some romance, see an exhibit, or just take a break from your typical weekend routines. With fewer photos from fewer activities (than you’d have with bigger trips), the scrapping of weekend getaways can focus on impressions, stories, companions, and moments.

layout from a weekend in boston

Try this: find a strong opening photo and a strong closing photo. Put each of them on their own pages and then make several pages for the middle that show the key stories/moments on this short getaway. Get the stories written down as soon as you can, in a diary or on a blog, if you’re not scrapping the pages immediately.

scrapbooking the Road Trip

A “road-trip” type vacation is not necessarily a literal trip in a car on a road or highway. The “road-trip” vacation is one that takes you to a series of what may be quite different locales over the course of one trip. The road-trip is a story that’s well-suited to being told in chronological order (more or less).

Try this: Use the Travel Page Planner to start detailing the different stops on the trip. After you’ve listed them all, go back through and think about whether they all really need to be included. Think, also, about whether there are some stories that merit their own pages and how best to get the pages and stories in order.

Traveling from LA to Vegas with cousins

scrapbooking a trip that’s about Being There

Some trips take you to one locale. There’s limited sightseeing on this type of vacation, and it’s more about enjoying place, people, and activities. Examples of this kind of vacation include:

• visiting family
• staying at a lakehouse/beachhouse
• going camping
• the ski slopes

Try this: It’s often more efficient and makes a better presentation when “Being There” trips are by categories or logical groupings. These groupings (which translate into pages) might be:

• the people
• the place
• the spots at the place
• the constants
• the hightlights
• the activities

The things that make a trip to my parents' home so lovely.

scrapbooking a vacation when you go On Tour

The “On Tour” travel experience is one in which many of the details are decided ahead of time–and, in fact, taken care of for you–so that you can relax as well as experience new sights and experiences. There are many ways to go “on tour” from taking a cruise to going on guided hike and camping adventure. You might take a bus tour through Europe or go on safari in Africa.

The photos you take while on tour will include those of the sights you visit as well of those of the aspects of the tour experience (i.e., lodging, people, routines). A combination approach that mixes chronological telling of the trip with select subject pages would work well for this kind of travel.

Try this: Make two lists: one of the trip chronology and one of the aspects/subjects you want to feature. Use a chronological flow with the featured aspects inserted where they flow best.

Photos from one outing on an Alaskan cruise.

scrapbooking the Themed Vacation

The “themed” vacation is one that takes you into a created world where you are doing more than viewing, where you’re entering into and experiencing a manufactured reality. You may have gone on a Disney vacation, visited a historic settlement where you’re re-enacting the way things were done in the past, travelled to Santa’s Village, or many other variations on the themed destination. The photos from a themed vacation can cover a lot of territory, and they don’t usually require a chronological telling. Aspects of a large theme/amusement park may include: characters, rides, performances, events, posed portraits, sights and more.
Try this:Begin with your “stack” of photos (prints or digitals). Select the keepers AND select the photos that are spectacular and that should be featured. Use the page planner to start defining the pages your photos demand of you. Once you’ve made a first pass at this, you might need to cut the planner up and play with order and arrangement of pages.

The highlight of a 5 year old's first Disney experience.

Looking for more help getting your Travel and Vacations scrapbooked?

Be sure you’re on our mailing list so that you receive notice when my self-paced class, “Scrap Your Travel & Vacations,” is available in the Get It Scrapped! store. It should be available before Thanksgiving.



New sketch bundle for scrapbook pages

You can find it in the Get It Scrapped! Get Sketched forum. Links to download a pdf with the templates & measurements and a zip file with templates for digi scrappers.

We abandoned the saw

Do you grade on effort or performance?

This summer Carpenter ants felled a big tree in the river where we swim and launch our kayaks. Most of the tree has been under water until now. Now: Newmarket has opened up their dam for maintenance and the river has gone down substantially. We've never seen it so low. A good part of the tree isn't submerged any more--though there is a lot of tree top under the water.

Neil really wanted to go down and see if we could saw it up. Got down there and found that would require standing in 4 feet of freezing water. And even getting to the water required navigating a steep and oozy drop off (first challenge was pulling one of Neil's boots out of the mud). So he borrowed our neighbor's Come Along (we thought it would work--it pulled Neil's car out of a messy situation recently--another story ;) ). So I shimmied out and wrapped the rope around the tree and we tried. No luck. And the rope we had that was long enough wasn't real thick and we were worried about it snapping. Then we thought it would be good if we could cut the main branch to all the major branches under water. So I shimmied back out and sawed ---- for a long time . . . I think I must have been at least 3/4s of the way through -- and then the cut closed up on the saw and it wouldn't budge.

Neil said I made a great effort--that he really wanted us to at least try :) Unfortunately I've never graded on effort. I like performance!

Christmas is both a collective and an individual experience. Record that on your scrapbook pages.

When you include memorabilia on your scrapbook pages you create an account of your culture at that time AS WELL AS your individual experience within that time. For example, take wrapping paper: the colors, images, and styles reveal: 1) the times in which the paper was designed; and 2) your choices and preferences in those times. Imagine creating and sharing an album that incorporates a variety of Christmas souvenirs alongside photos and journaled memories.

In a her online class "Souvenirs of the Season," Sharyn Tormanen is ready to take you on a holiday ride that begins with peeks at both cultural and personal histories of Christmas memorabilia. From there she’ll show you the practical and creative aspects of gathering your own Christmas souvenirs and then getting them onto holiday pages. Don’t miss this experience that’s sure to trigger memories of holidays past while inspiring rich memory-keeping of holidays future.

Class starts November 17th, and anyone who took this class last year is welcome back at no charge. You'll receive access to the private forum on the 16th.

Your mother will take a bullet for you - chatting with folks at Applecrest Farm

Isaac has been talking about going to Applecrest since early September. After many busy (or rainy) weekends, we made it--and just in time. Bluegrass music, hayrides, pumpkins, apples, cider doughnuts---and being together. We sat for a while watching music near a man who told me about how my heart would be broken when my sons grew up and attached themselves more to their wives' families than to mine. He told the boys to remember their mother was their best friend--that she'd take a bullet for them before their wives would. So . . . it's always good to be reminded that every day is important and these times will pass so I need to treasure them now . . . and then it's time to move forward, so we excused ourselves and took a storybook hayride. It was fun, really.

I forgot the card for my camera. :( So . . . used my iphone. Which means low quality bluish photos. These I edited with Totally Rad Actions' Sparta and they were greatly improved. Love the shot of Isaac eating with the band behind him because I remember how he was moving to the music as he sat there. He was feeling it. Josh was just feeling tired and lousy. I guess a Friday night real-time sleepover and a Saturday night virtual sleepover (chatting on x-box live with 3 of his favorite friends til after midnight) will do that.

Would you participate in our memory-keeping survey

click here to participate in: Memory Keeping: Do You?

I'm interested in the ways we tell and preserve our stories. Whether you consider yourself an active memory keeper or not, I'd love to hear from you. What's more, I'm happy to share the results with all who participate.

I've been offering online classes alongside 12 other teachers at Get It Scrapped! for two years now. The result is a heck of a lot of information about scrapbooking, photography, journaling, page design, product use, digital techniques and much, much more. We're in the process of making changes to the Get It Scrapped! website so that much of this information we've put together can be accessed for free. We want anyone who is inclined to "Get It Scrapped!" to be able to easily find the resources needed.

Collecting and presenting these resources has raised the question: what do current (and would-be) memory keepers need and want? Thus this survey. The questions are short, and all of us at Get It Scrapped! are appreciative of any time you're willing to spend answering them.

What's in it for you? We're glad to share the results with you AND we hope to build a better website informed by those results.

click here to participate in: Memory Keeping: Do You?

 

Cropadile + foam sheets + army helmet = triceratops head

It all worked out much easier than I'd anticipated. Joshua went to party last week so he's all set with a camo-motif costume, but Isaac had a different dream --- and we'd (I'd) procrastinated out of worry that I didn't understand the dream: a Griffin-Triceraops dude. We took the cropadile to an army helmet and attached a foam frill and horns. The beak is what's really awesome and they boys totally did it. (Very little work went into Joshua's costume, so he pleaded putting off homework for the satisfaction of costuming his brother). He drew a pattern with tabs and fold lines and had Isaac cut it out and sew it up. I don't know what I was planning to do, but it was nothing like this beak (and they cropadiled some eyelets for the string to hold it on).

Isaac was thrilled with the random goofiness of his costume and danced and sang Eye of the Tiger cracking us up. As he settled in to write several homework assignments, Joshua put on a mustache and goatee (with glue-dots!!! ow!) (Also, I think this might be my first photo of Joshua with his newly short hair and new glasses.)

Stamping is a great technique for layouts, cards & other projects.

Get It Stamped! 101 is the first in a series of stamping classes from Sharyn Tormanen.

Geared for the beginner, but packed with enough tips and secrets to delight an intermediate stamper, the lessons in this 6-week class will have you eager to add stamping to your layouts and projects.


Each of the 6 weekly lessons includes a step-by-step tutorial as well as multiple examples of finished products using the featured technique. You’ll come out of Get It Stamped! 101 understanding how to use and choose from a variety of stamps and inks, make good impressions, use masking techniques, fill your images, and do basic embossing. Plus, you’ll be ready to move on to the follow-on classes in 2010.

Start Here: with one piece of inspiration & the desire to play

It's always fun to make a page with something new or inspiring in mind. This page, Harvest Time, was begun with just that: a little inspiration (and the desire to play with digital product to get something new).

Harvest Time | Digital Page

I looked through the November issue of Creating Keepsakes while waiting for my husband at an appointment. This page, "Shoes" by Amy Peterman, caught my eye -- first because of the awesome title--but, then, it was that mat with pinking on 3 sides and a torn notebook edge on one side that I kept looking at. I like to do a lot of layering and I'm always looking for good mats or foundations -- this would definitely add interest to a page.

And -- it provided a way to play with my digital product stash. I remembered Katie Pertiet had some torn notebook edge masks (they were one of my early digital purchases!) and I knew there were lots of border templates in the Designer Digitals store, too.

I layered and sized the edge and border masks until I had a good fit. I merged the two layers and then clipped this patterned paper from Lynn Grieveson's Fall Festival Kit. I had a great new piece to layer into a page--and I'm keeping that new merged mask handy.

start here: beginning a new scrapbook page

A big part of the fun in scrapbooking for me is in coming up with a composition that 1) lets me include several photos and 2) looks good. Working this out is the equivalent of solving a puzzle (and many of you know that I love math puzzles). Solving the same puzzle, though, can get old so I'm always looking for new angles. My angle this week is to think about "the divide." I started each of these layouts with the thought that I wanted to divide the page in half.

"Autumn Outing" has a vertical divide and "To School 09" has a horizontal divide. They were fun to make. They include several photos. I like looking at them. Puzzle done. Scrapbooking enjoyed :)

All supples are from www.DesignerDigitals.com. Click on the page name to see supply links.

Autumn Outing

To School '09

Looking for other starts? Jane Howden will be posting a new sketch in the Get It Scrapped! public forums this morning and a challenge to go with it. Everyone who participates in Jane's Friday challenges this month is entered into a drawing for an October Work In Progress kit.

Other starts? Doris Sander's Product Pizzazz classes are available in self-paced form. Each includes detailed product, technique, and design lessons and then ends with a "Use It Now" challenge.