Online Scrappy Classes

A Note to my Readers:
    K and I figured out how to put in reactions to the bottom of a post. By K and I, I mean I wanted it and K figured it out. I hope you enjoy this new feature. There is also a star rating system per post, but I did not want to subject myself to further scrutiny.

Blog post rating system I didn't incorporate

      I don't know if I have a lot of time to make some crafty items of my own that I can post. I am designing some items for the DT applications and they require new, never been seen items. So I can't show you until after the process if over. But know that I am busy thinking up new ideas and creating away.

Class #1: Finding Your Way
     I signed up for two online classes that begin this week. One is called, Finding Your Way from Big Picture Classes.  You can view the synopsis and sign up here if you are interested. The topic seems very interesting - finding your own design style and being true to who you are as a designer. I've been thinking about what is my personal style lately. When I take a short workshop class, it is more product oriented rather than process oriented. I end up with a carbon copy of the teacher's project. It looks nice but doesn't feel like I had much to do with it. When I look through my old albums, I can tell what I was influenced by at that time. I was wondering what makes a layout truly my own.

    According to the class description, a side benefit is that you save money because you know what you will and won't use on your pages and won't be lured by the pretty packaging. Knowing your style will help you focus on what to purchase and what to ignore. The instructor found her "design voice" by scrapping a layout a day for 31 days and then noticing repeated patterns in her work. I wonder if that is what we will be doing.

Karen Grunberg's 31 day challenge to herself

Class #2: Mouse, Paper, Scissors

   The other class is called Mouse, Paper, Scissors from Jessicasprague.com, you can view the course content here if you are interested. It is a hybrid class, meaning it uses digital scrapbooking on the computer combined with traditional paper and glue scrapbooking. This sounds interesting because I did want to learn more about Photoshop but didn't want to give up all my fun supplies. The class is taught by Jessica Sprague and Heidi Swapp, two big names in the scrapbooking world. This class comes with a kit of materials mailed to your door. I was surprised by the quality of the contents. 

Mouse, Paper, Scissors class kit

     Our first assignment today was to write down on the enclosed notepad 10 status updates, like you would for Facebook or Twitter. I don't really like to write status updates. Do people care where I am and what I'm eating? The class stated there were 6 types of updates - informative, declarative, philosophical, quotations, complaints and inappropriate. I looked up declarative sentence on a grammar website and the first example read, "I like children - fried." W.C. Fields. Anyways, I realized I only posted informative statements, it seems the least revealing and the easiest to write. I thought it would be short and sweet to write some updates, but I ended up writing 3 pages, albeit, small pages. I tried to write some in each category. Another thing I realized is that it was physically very difficult to write with a pen. I think I'm so used to typing and I'm not teaching handwriting anymore or having my writing projected on a Smart board. Do you lose your muscle memory or fine motor coordination if you don't write that often? K answer below if you read this. This is a wife test, hope you pass, haha. 

1st Assignment: Status Update 

The teachers hinted we would be doing something with our writings for a later project. Also, this plain little notepad will eventually be decorated like this:

A future class project

I'll post what I make in my classes, tell you what I learned and let you know if I make any epiphanous self discoveries. 

I kept getting interrupted during this post because I was baking some muffins, and wanted to make sure they didn't burn. They turned out just fine.

My cranberry, pecan bran muffins

Side Note:

     On Saturday, K and I went to watch a musical production of Gigi by the Reprise Theatre Company, (performed at UCLA) which is still going on this week. It was fine, but I'd recommend Daddy Long Legs more, both are based from books written by the same author, Colette.  But what I found interesting was when the lights first turned on, the solo person on the stage was the actor who played Professor Hathaway from Real Genius, which contains one of our favorite movie quote, "I was thinking of the immortal words of Socrates who said, 'I drank what?'" For the rest of the musical I kept thinking of Professor Hathaway instead of the character Luminaire from Beauty and the Beast was based upon.  

The musical Gigi

Then another actress came out and I knew I had seen her before and then I remembered. Once while my family and I were having lunch after church, we were flashmobbed by a group of dancing men wearing only Daisy dukes. There was a group of their friends filming and watching, one of them was an actress I knew I had seen around on TV before. My friend Debby found the video on Youtube which you can view at your own discretion here. What a strange small world in which we live in.