Not I bumped my head, banged it on something or even fell and then bumped my head.  No, it was more like – Go straight to falling on head; do not pass Go, do not collect $200!

Want to see whose fault it was?

I am pretty sure he is toying with going to the dark side.  Just look at him mocking me with what looks like a thumbs up!  Remember you heard it here first - Obi Wan Kenobi is thinking of going over to the dark side!

So this is how it went down.  I was innocently walking through my bedroom and was unaware of Obi Wan’s evil plan.  You see he was laying waiting in the middle of said floor and I was barefoot.  As any parent knows stepping on a toy such as this will cause weirdly strange pain (especially if contact with the bare arch happens!) So I stepped, Obi Wan got my arch, and I tried to make a strange hoppy movement to stop the crazy, weird pain.  I, of course, lost my balance and instead of falling like a normal person I went directly down on my head.  Right in the middle of the forehead.  Now that is pain!  My hands did try to stop the fall but they were useless.  (I am pretty sure Obi Wan knew this would happen!)  I have to admit that even in the pain I laid there thinking – wow!  I wish someone had seen that ‘cause that was hilariously funny.  I mean movie funny.  Like that could only happen in a movie and no real person falls that way.

Again, I am pretty sure this was Obi Wan’s plan all along.  He is going to be one evil dude if he converts to the dark side.

So, throbbing headache still, I am taking it easy today.  Was supposed to be making some scrappy stuff but my head is hurting too much.

So today I will share another sample for a class I am teaching.

This is from my class Paradise Point.  It is offered at all 4 GASCs but I believe both Arlington, TX and Chantilly, VA are sold out.  That leaves it open to the folks from Grand Rapids, MI and Chattanooga, TN.

Class is sponsored by Fiskars and Heidi Grace and we make a really fun mini album.  See for yourself.

Lots of fun texture, clear pages and easy to make - great for any photos.

The class is offered on the Friday of the above shows – 4:00-5:30pm.

OH and one more thing.  I have had some inquiries if I am going to be selling some class kits online to people who live too far away from the GASCs. 

I am looking into it.  Some of the products in these classes are donated so I obviously cannot sell any kits that have this but I am looking into getting everything figured out.  So if you are interested in any of the class kits you see posted, then shoot me an email.   I have started a list.  There is no commitment – if I can get it arranged I will email you and you can decide then.  If you change your mind I will just move to the next person on the list.  OK?  Questions? Email me.  I don’t bite ;)

Progress. :)

These are my book layouts.  All of them.  Some I haven't seen for a year! Approx 18" tall!

Returned to me because my book is done!  Woohoo.  You see your art gets sent in for photography and then they need to hold it just incase something needs to be re-photographed.  When your book is finally printing they send it back to you.  This is progress.  Book progress.  :)

And it makes me very happy.  :)

So, enough about me.  What are you doing for National Scrapbooking Day?  Scrapbooking I hope.

Me?  I'm hoping to get the kidlets occupied and spend some serious time with my scissors, paper and adhesive.  They miss me.  I've been neglecting them.

So today it is official.  It is Magnus' "real" birthday.  I had trouble explaining to Magnus that Saturday we celebrated his birthday with a party but his actual birthday was today.  He responded with, "So I am having a fake birthday and a real birthday?"  Well, I guess.  Kind of.  So hard to explain these things to a four year old who sees in black and white.  I have to say his logic did make me smile. 

And today he woke up asking if he was getting a real cake today for his real birthday. I think he has probably been reading this book too much.  All about a real vs. pretend (great book by a Canadian author)

And the best moment from his birthday party on Saturday?

When he opened the above present and exclaimed that he had wanted it for years!  Made everyone laugh with that one!

And now I wanted to ask you - Should I start up the Friday Challenges again?  I sort of stopped cause I got really busy but there were a bunch of you playing along and must have a little book half full and waiting for more.  Let me know in the comments if you want to do them again or email me.

Oh and don't forget to visit me at MyCraftivity.  You will see I have turned into a Crazy Craft Stalker there - read here to find out more. ;)

You may already know this but I bet there are some out there that don't so I thought I would share.

A lot of times I crop my photos directly on the computer before printing but that it is not always possible, especially when printing a lot all at once.  So sometimes they getting printed even though I know they would look better with some simple crops to take away distracting background details.  For example see the photo below.  It would definitely look better with some of the bold background taken away.

So I make manual crops with my paper cutter. But it is easy to crop to much or too little - and the cuts are permanent!  So I use these.

Pretty boring looking aren't they?  I made them myself out of black cardstock and they are about 2" wide.  I just used some scraps. But look what they can do for you quickly.

By moving them around it is easy to get a visual of what the photo will look like cropped.  Once I have a crop I am happy with I just make small marks in the corners and then get busy with my paper cutter!

So simple and so easy to make.  Hope it helps someone :)

(Oh and thanks to my sister who is the person in the photo - she made a great photo model for this demo!)

So we are prepping for a big day in the Jeffrey Rieger household.  Tomorrow we celebrate Magnus turning 4.  Every birthday party for the last few months has been torture for Magnus as he struggled to understand that is wasn't his birthday yet.  But now the big is almost here.

Yesterday we went and chose the cake and spent way too much time in the party store deciding on a theme and decorations. :) After much deliberation on his part he finally decided on a "Cars" party.  Believe me, it was a hard decision!  And then Magnus wanted a new shirt for his birthday.  A Cars shirt to be specific.  To match the cake and the decorations.  We went and looked and looked and nothing.  (Funny  - and irritating - that you can not find things you see all the time when you need them!) 

So as an alternative (and because Magnus is learning his numbers ) I altered a t-shirt for him.  He has been facinated with the number 4 (go figure!) so this is what I made him to wear to the party.

Yup!  Felt letters that I normally use on scrapbook pages have made their way onto this cute little t-shirt.  I just pinned them in place and handstitched around each letter with embroidery floss.  Took about 25 minutes and now he is the proud owner of this personalized tee. I like this better than a boring old Cars t-shirt anyway!

Have a great weekend everyone!

Do you play tag?

With your photos that is? 

[LOL  You thought I was going to play tag with you didn't you?  I so wish we could have one big scrappy tag game - imagine the giggles!  Winner could take home a bag of scrap goodies and losers would have to clean up after the crop!  OK - meet you in my front yard in half an hour ;) ]

But I digress. I was going to ask if you regularly tag your digital photos with key words?  I have found this practice so helpful - especially because I take A LOT of photos. When I want to find photos from an event I just do a quick search and it pulls up the photos. 

I just use the program that was on my computer (Microsoft) so check to see of the program you use has this feature.  If not there are a lot of programs that do.  I just add very simple tags that will help me narrow down my search.  I do it whenever I upload photos to my computer so I stay on top of it. 

For example Harper was on TV the other day so I snapped a few pictures of it so I could make a scrapbook page. (She was on TV with her school to promote a running/self esteem program she belongs to called Girls on the Run.)

(Yes the photo isn't great but I wanted to record the moment and it still captures that for me.)

I uploaded the photos from my camera and there were over 30 pictures (she was on 5 times in an hour).  Even before I went through them to delete the ones I didn't like or need I tagged them.

Just a simple tag - Harper on TV.  Sometimes I just type the kids names or words like - Spring, Museum or 4th birthday.  Words that I might use to search my computer with.  Sometimes when I search it pulls up a lot - depending on how generic the word is but that is good sometimes when I am not looking for an event photo but more of a photo to suit a story I am telling.  For example, I may be writing a scrapbook story about how I hate winter so I search "Spring" within my photos and it pulls up everything I tagged with spring.  I then can pick photos that work with my story.  Same goes for birthdays, holidays or other events in our lives.

I love this system. 

And then when I have a few moments I do go through my photos and delete the ones I don't want.  I don't always have time when I first upload but I do try to do it somewhat regularly.  I take a lot of photos and if I don't delete I end up with too much (overwhelming) and there is no point in keeping the ones I will never use.  I have two steps to this.  I do a "first delete" which is the really obvious deletes - like duplicates of the the same moment (I have a habit of taking two of every picture to make sure I "got" it) or really out of focus or "bad" shots.  Then later when I go to print I get more critical and start figuring out what I really want to print or keep and what I really don't need.  Sort of like when you are cleaning out the closet.  First step, toss away everything you hate.  Second step really ask yourself, "Are you really going to wear that again?"  Same with the photos.  Best done in two steps.

So basically try and find out if your program has this feature and try it out.  Don't worry about tagging the backlog of photos if you find the task overwhelming.  Just start with the new ones you upload from today on.  As a scrapper I bet you like it - no more searching forever for that one photo of Jimmy that you know is there somewhere!  Hope this helps someone, somewhere. :)

And remember I said I was going to scrap last night for the first time in a bit.  Well I did.  I got a page done that is a gift for someone (can't show it until she gets it) and I am really happy with it.  It had been half done for awhile but I was stumped on one part.  Inspiration hit last night and I am really happy with the way it turned out.

And then I started in on some more class stuff.  I worked on the embellishments for my Altered Canvas Memory Clock class (offered at all four GASCs).  Just love the way these turned out.  We will be making them in the class to be used on the canvas.

And then I need to do some number organizing for the class.  Some yummy felt numbers.

And now I am off to go cake shopping with Magnus.  It is his birthday soon and we are celebrating this weekend and he gets to pick his cake today.  Can we say excited???