If a picture is worth a thousand words, think of what can be conveyed with a photo collage?
I blogged over at The Lilypad today about storytelling using photo collages, which is something that I love to do. I gave examples of my own scrapbooking, and pulled some examples from The Lilypad gallery as well. I also gave resources on computer programs and apps that you can use to make collages. You can check out my post “Storytelling With Photo Collages” at The Lilypad.
On Saturday (5/19) I had the pleasure of attending my first real life scrapbooking class taught by Amy Tan (Amy Tangerine). I was very excited for several reasons. I actually had never been to Paper Tales, a local scrapbook store in San Diego (Point Loma). I had heard great things about it and was excited to check it out. I was also excited to be taking a scrapbooking class live in person. And I was excited to meet some local girls who love scrapbooking as much as I do! :)
The day before, I gathered my tools for bringing to class. 
Upon arriving, Amy greeted me with a warm hug. We each got a kit bag full of awesome goodies. This photo was taken by Amy. 
This was my bag. The green chevron bag had tons of taffy and smartie candy in it! How sweet is that?? :)
Opened up my baggie to spread my stuff out onto the table. 
There were eight people in class. We each got half a long table to spread our stuff out. I loved how much space we got to work on our projects. Amy and her mom even brought waters for everyone.
We worked on two layouts at the same time. I had never done that before! I have to say that I loved it. I brought enough pictures to scrap two layouts and get a good start on my mini book. The class was three hours and I felt so productive. I had never scrapbooked 2 pages plus get a start on a mini book in three hours before. Plus, we took time out to socialize, chat, and goof around a bit.
And we took time to take photos, of course! Here’s one of me and Amy. 
Me and Amy’s sweet mommy Chiao Tan. 
“Mommy” helped put the class kit together and walked around to make sure we knew what we were doing with the embroidery needle and thread. (Yes, we got to hand-sew on pages!)
I met the wonderful Caz Hancock (whom I know from Studio Calico), who was there all the way from New Zealand! Well, she was on an almost three week vacation to SoCal, but I like to say she came just for the class, LOL. 
I also met quite a few other local gals. This is Heidi. 
We got to play with Amy’s infamous washi tape collection. 
This photo by Amy. That’s us perusing Amy’s large washi tape collection, and her box of sequins! She brought her Pivi printer to class and printed out a group photo for each of us!
And she later emailed us the photo also. 
I love it! Each of us holding up our projects.
The three hours went by so quickly. When it was over, I said goodbye to everyone (sniff) and went shopping inside Paper Tales. On the day of class, you get a 10% discount on everything you purchase. Here’s what I got. 
Todd had spent the morning at a Toastmasters Conference at the Catamaran resort. We met up at Phil’s BBQ for a late lunch! 
I had trouble finding it and got lost, even though it was only like a mile away! But Todd already got seats in the bar area and ordered our food (he knows what I like there), so my food had just arrived when I finally got there! So awesome to have such a great husband! :)
Check out the line at Phil’s BBQ for a table. It’s insane. 
The first time we went there the line was that long and we waited over 1.5 hours to get in. We were lucky to grab some bar seats in the bar area this time.
After I got home, I put the finishing touches on my layouts. I machine-stitched and added a little more embellies.
Here’s layout #1. 
I dabbed ink on the wood veneer heart and then covered it with Glossy Accents. 
Sprayed the wood veneer camera with Mr Huey Piglet. 
Here’s layout #2. 
And my mini book, which I still have to add some photos and finish up. I loved the stitching technique that Amy taught us in class, to bind this mini book pages together. 
I had so much fun in class. I loved meeting everyone. I loved how I learned to hand-sew on layouts and to hand stitch mini book pages together. I loved how productive I was in class, despite lots of socializing and goofing off. I loved everything about it and would definitely take another live class with Amy Tan again when she comes down to San Diego. This was such an awesome experience! ♥
Oh, and remember these crafting calling cards? 
Everyone took one and they liked it! :) Yay!
I’m taking today and tomorrow off work, so my 5-day weekend begun! It began last night with dinner at a Mexican restaurant with an old friend. So happy to get my weekend started! Although, first thing this morning I had a dentist appointment, ick. Upside is my teeth are doing great. Another upside is I treated myself to Starbucks afterwards. I’m not a frequent Starbucks visitor, so it really was a treat. And I got some beauty products at Target. I’m behind in blogging about my everyday life again. It’s kind of what happens when you work all day and you have social plans in the evenings. But that’s a good thing. :) Oh and I will be blogging about the Amy Tan class I went to at Paper Tales soon!
Project Life Week 19 was an experiment in “Speed Scrap” Project Life. It was Monday night and I was worried about being behind about two weeks in Project Life. I wanted to get one week done quickly. So I came up with the idea of timing myself from start to finish, and trying to get it done as fast as I can, while maintaining my style. From start to finish, it took me 2 hours and 58 minutes, so we’ll round off to 3 hours. (This includes picking out photos and printing them out, but that part only took 39 minutes.) I guess that’s as fast as I can put a two-page Project Life spread together! I even used some pre-stamped and pre-sewn journal cards. But I guess 3 hours isn’t too bad. And since I was able to get a week of Project Life done in 3 hours on a week night after work, I feel more confident and less stressed about getting behind. :)
Week 19 
Left side 
This week’s title page came from the Clementine Core Kit. I added some stamping, a strip fo cameras from a AC Amy Tangerine paper, and some Thickers alpha stickers. (Supplies are linked at the end of the post.) 
On NSD I happen to get my huge box of scrappy supplies from Stop And Scrap. Good timing! Background paper from Echo Park’s Note To Self 6x6 paper pad. 
The left is just a filler card from the Clementine core kit, but I love the colors of the dots! The right is a grid card stamped with a cassette tape stamp that I hand-carved myself. 
AVENGERS assemble! LOVED this movie. Like, super-duper loved it. I was so hyped about it after seeing Ironman, Thor, and Captain America, but it exceeded my expectations even. 
I caught a couple of photos of Noodle that were so funny. For this slot I just printed both photos on a 4x6 photo paper, and stapled a print & cut ticket that I made myself. Then I wrote on it with a Slick Writer. Super-easy and time-saving. 
Right side 
We finally got our Canon 28mm F/1.8 lens and we love it! I had already sewn the border on this journal card a few weeks ago in my journal card mass-production session. So I just adhered the photos, stuck a Martha Stewart file label and October Afternoon badge on there and it’s done! 
The “too cool” whale stamp was in the $1 bin at Michaels. Getting my Studio Calico box is one of the best days of the month! 
Lunch with my favorite friend Meera. I love her to pieces. I used some Jenni Bowlin Chewing gum ink on the Studio Calico wood veneer people and adhered onto the page with glue dots. 
A huge sweet surprise happy mail from Jenn Smith Sloane! 
Some more pre-assembled journal cards. 
Any comments or questions? I love to hear from you! :D
2012 Project Life | Week 19 Supplies:
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Project Life Supplies | Stuff I Use Every Week
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