Nihao, Cupcake!

Feature on Big Picture Classes Blog @BigPictureClass

via www.bigpictureclasses.com

And check back soon for details on a very cool give away from Ella Publishing!!

THE CREATURE (a pretty darn funny film by my 11 year old with help from nobody over 7 years old)...

Ella Publishing May Take 12 Challenge :: Stepping Back in Time [China-Style]

It is time for yet another Ella Publishing Take 12 Challenge!!

CONFESSION: My twelve photos are not actually from May 12th. Shhhhhhhhh! I had a very special day on May 11th. I had a very special day on May 13th (Mother's Day). On May 12th... not so much.

Don't get me wrong. We had a fun day, but it was not a day that was conducive to good photos. Nor was I in the mood to force myself to take photos, as much as I tried.

I call myself "The Moody Photographer." And when the mood isn't there, I don't take photos.

So, I decided to do my layout with the TWELVE photos that did inspire me. On the 11th I went on a special tour with a group of other moms who live in Beijing. We went to a village just outside of the city. It is the one place in the world that makes the special glazed tiles (many 3 dimensional) that adorn the buildings at The Forbidden City, the city gates (including Tian'anmen Square), the temple buildings in the parks, etc.

It is a workshop where they mine shale in the local mountains. They turn that to clay and packing molds by hand, they create these amazing decorative tiles.

After which, they dip them in glaze (made from cobalt, copper & iron) and fire them in old fashioned kilns. 

 

I love these mock old Chinese coin brads I got from Michaels. They come with two other Chinese-esque brads that are equally as cool/beautiful.  

One reason this trip was so meaningful to me was that I have taken ceramics classes at various times in my life; for two years while in Japan, one summer in college when the visiting professor told me I should be an artist and in California with my kids at our local community center. [How cool that they had Mommy & me ceramics classes,no?!]

I chose this paper from the Far East (Die Cuts With a View) paper pack because the crackling reminded me of the dried mud turning into clay in huge troughs at the front of the workshop. 

 

I wanted the attention on my photos so I chose a sketch (Template 1 in the Template packet) from the Ella Publishing Take 12 Guided Inspiration Kit. And I LOVE how it turned out. The photos are definitely the stars of this layout. They tell the stoy.

There is more journaling I would like to add, so I might add a 6x12 insert and if there is space, I might add a few smaller accent photos along with my journaling.

I just loved this day. 

I loved interacting with the artisans, being able to be right in the heart of their workshop - literally stepping over the wet clay shapes waiting to go into the drying room (essentially a giant oven).

This is the drying room. Notice how the pieces are different shades of grey? The darker pieces are the wet ones and the lighter grey ones are almost dry and ready to go to the glazing workshop.

It was like stepping back in time to simpler times before over-litigation and the chaos of the modern world got in the way.

A day like this is one of the magical treasures that seem to happen or find you when living abroad. It's a wonderful surprise to find amazing things that still seem undiscovered. Hard to find any more!

Oh! I almost forgot! The best part was that we got to take home some of these amazing tiles. The lady who organized the tour is fascinated with the mythical creatures on the tiles that adorn the roofs of the Forbidden City. 

This is my lion.

It is this fascination that inspired her to arrange the tour. She worked on our tour guide the entire time trying to convince him to let us purchase a tile or two and he finally broke down when she told him, "My life won't be complete until I get to take some of those animals home!" With that, they opened up their storehouse and we had a great time shopping in the dark, dusty (such thick dust you wouldn't believe it) store house, picking out our treasures that cleaned up very nicely. 

This is my dragon.

To see all my Flickr photos from the outing, including photos of the village with a faded painting of Mao Zedong (I'm pretty sure that is who it is) on one of the walls and a train rushing past within mere feet of us as we stood on a bridge, click here.

To see all of my past Take 12 Layouts and the corresponding posts, go here.

More inspiration from the Take Twelve Design Team:

Like the Car
Janette Carter-Kincaid
Scrap Inspired
Scrappy Wife, Happy Life
Day by Day
Right Here-Right Now
The Scrapbooking Haven Diva
Scrapworthy Lives
People of the Scrapbook
My Little Blessings
Life is Sweet
A Swoop and a Dart
Endless Possibilities
Yeah, Write

Visit Ella Publishing Co. to link up your layout or photos for a chance to win this month's prize.

 

Not Your Ordinary Mother's Day Gift (and that is what my hair looks like in the morning)...

 

This is what my kids made for me this Mother's Day.

THE CREATURE (Directed by THE Nicholas)! Coming Soon (maybe tomorrow?), to a blog near you...

May Take Twelve: Weekend Edition | Ella Publishing Co.

via www.ellapublishing.com

A great prize this month for Ella's Take 12 May challenge. Don't forget to take your 12 photos on the 12th! I've already taken mine since it late in the afternoon here. I can't wait to see your photos and layouts.

Project Life :: Tips for Staying Caught Up

Most of you know that Project Life is a system of preserving photos and memories created by Becky Higgins, right? The idea behind it is to make it as easy and simple as possible to document and record those memories.

The original concept was designed for a photo a day project, using that everyday concept to document life. But it has evolved beyond that. It is much more flexible. It can be used to pair any photos with any story or word. The idea is to make it easy so that there is NO guilt and NO "caught up".

But, let's face it, some of us have an idea in our head about the way we want to do this project and gosh darn, that is the way we are going to do it! Even if that means putting off working on it until we have the time. We start the year off enthusiastic. We collect everything. We make our layouts extra cute.

But then life starts getting in the way. We go a few days without taking a photo. We forget to write down things the kids say. We stop collecting things. We get behind. And we never seem to get back to the project because

the longer we wait, the further behind we get. And then the task of "catching up" seems overwhelming and unattainable. And some where along the way, we give up and it becomes another unfinished album.

This time of year seems to be the crucial time of year when projects like these start getting lost. Then summer will seal its fate with kids home from school and especially with summer travel and other activities.

Don't let this happen to you! Make a little time to "catch up" and get at least get the skeleton of your album done. You won't regret it. If you find some time in the future, you can go back and "cuten" things up. But if you never end up having the time, at least the "meat" has been documented.

I've learned that I like to work on my projects slowly. It works best for me to get the "skeleton" finished. By skeleton, in this case, I mean the photos and the journaling cards and in my case, the ephemera slipped into pockets.

I typically like to have my journaling written, but as you can see in these last few pages, I have blank journaling cards. Let go of hte pressure that every Project Life spread has to be super adorable or even coordinating.

If you are too embarrased to show it on your blog, do it just for yourself. Something imperfectly documented is better than nothing perfectly documented. Don't you think?

I decided I needed to to that this month. I only did two spreads last month so I had to catch up this month. I ended up being a couple of days late, but it was worth it.

One thing I still need to do is finish dating all of my weekly title cards. I can't tell you how having these prepared ahead of time helps me, especially when I like to throw in ephemera along the way.

I was hoping to do weekly summaries, but that hasn't happened. I did it once and never printed it out. I find doing things by hand, is the most efficient way for me. I've also wanted to print out lots of emails, electronic fliers from the kids' school, Ali Edwards' logo for Week in the Life, but so far, they haven't happened.

But what I do have, is lots of memories saved. And that is priceless.

Do you see that sushi grass stuck in the journaling pocket? My son saved that for our book. It is from his new favorite restaurant, Sushi Express (it's a conveyor belt sushi place). He is borderline obsessed with this place. It is on our same block and is cheaper than eating at home, so in the last week, I have taken him three times! Oh, and since it is sushi, it is healthy too. Anyway, I told him if we put that grass along with the menu he grabbed in the PL book, he had to write a journaling card about the restaurant. He agreed. Now that is worth finding just enough time to fill in a few journaling cards and setting up some date cards, don't you think?

[EDITED: May 9, 2012]

Decided to take the plunge and buy this because it is such a great deal. $3.99 per pack AND you get entered in a give away on Becky's blog if you purchase by Wednesday (US time).

Project Life Cardstock - Clementine Collection

You could also buy this, also on sale at 50% off.

Project Life Cardstock - Cobalt Collection

 

 

TIPS FOR KEEPING UP WITH PROJECT LIFE

I'll reprint my tips for making Project Life easier to keep up with, originally published in this post.

Participating in this project for the past two & a half years has taught me a lot and this is what I have been doing to stay caught up most of the time:

1) Create a space where my Project Life album can lay open at all times so I can slide in bits and pieces from the week. This took me several attempts and some rearranging to find a place where it wasn't in the way. 

2) Keep all my Project Life supplies together. I keep mine on a wooden tray with two inch sides. It contains several baskets that hold the cards and one that holds pens and stamps. Currently I am looking for a place in my home where I can keep the tray so it isn't taking up so much of my desk space. I would like to put my sewing machine on top of my desk.

3) Label each week well ahead of time so that it is clear where items from the week go. This way if I do fall behind, and a week doesn't get completed, I can still slide in things from the current week. (I lost my place this year and didn't have new cards labeled to mark the weeks and the weeks started getting away from me so I have a bunch of ephemera and it is not organized, so that will take some work to get that sorted.)

4) Get photos printed regularly. I am not sure yet how often I will get my photos printed. Ideally, I will do this once a week, but at the least, it will be monthly. At first I was printing at home using my own photo printer, but printing ink here in China is outrageously expensive, not to mention, I cannot get any photo paper so it must come from home (Calif). That means if I run out between visits, I'm out of luck. [EDITED 4/7/2012: I print my photos as soon as I have 100+ to print as delivery is free.]

5) I've purchased the Snapfish add on for Lightroom, that way I can set up a smart folder for my weekly Project Life uploads [upload them directly through LIghtroom to Snap fish] and it will make printing photos that much easier, more automatic and less time consuming.

6) This year I am going to WRITE THE DATE (or stamp it) on my memorabilia before I save it. This way if something happens to Plan #3, it will be easy to figure out which week the memorabilia belongs to. (This is a good back up plan for those unforeseen busy times when all the best laid plans go awry, i.e., kids are home for summer, winter holidays when we are busy, busy, busy, family vacation, extended trip home to the States for my family, beginning of the school year, etc.)

7) Saving stories on 100 Journaling Cards - 3" x 4" with Grid Design - I started doing this a few months ago when I started getting behind on my album. The kids would say funny things or I would notice something and I would grab a Journaling Card - 3" x 4" with Grid Design from my Project Life tray and a pen from the journaling basket that sits inside and jot down the antecdote, stamp the date and put it in my tray for the next time I work on my album. 

Do you have any great tried & true Project Life tips to share? Post them in the comments. I'd love to hear.

PROJECT LIFE BLOG HOP PARTICIPANTS

 

Margie You are HERE.

Devon http://www.youhadmeatneurotic.com <--- Go here NEXT.   Nikki www.inkyart.com.au

Laew www.crafty-creativity.blogspot.com

Lois http://loishouston.typepad.com/thoughts-along-lifes-highway/

Helen www.helen-mills.blogspot.com

Jennifer http://vogtstories.blogspot.com

Brighton www.dearbrighton.wordpress.com

May Blog Hop x 2: {FAMILY x 12} + {Project Life}

We interupt this blog post for the following special message...

HAPPY iSCRAPBOOK DAY!!

There are a ton of deals out there as well as so many fun challenges. Plenty of blogs are listing links to all the fun and there is even more information via Twitter. There will not be enough time in the day to do it all. So, if you are reading this, I THANK YOU for stopping by this blog, when there are so many others calling for your attention. Without further ado, on with our normally scheduled blog post:

It's the 5th of the month so that means TWO Blog Hops in ONE post...

First off is the FAMILY x 12 Blog Hop: A small group of us support each other each month in getting a family photo. If we don't make a point of doing it every month, then too many days, weeks, years pass and we forget to take photos of our families all together. How many photos have you taken this year of your family?

Since we didn't remember to have anyone take our photo early in the month when we were doing something fun, we did this at the last possible moment. It was two hours before my husband had to leave for the airport. You may be able to tell that it was after the sun went down so we didn't have much light to work with.

And if you have been visiting often for these FAMILY x 12 Blog Hops, you know that we have more than one photo of our family on that distinctive red sofa. So, to add a little spice this time around, we decided to take a photo of ALL TEN of our family members.

You may remember this photo above. I used the exact same technique. To read about HOW I did it, go to this post, Top Ten Self-Timer Madness Photos.

Don't forget to continue on to all the other participants for more family photo inspiration! If you are interested in committing to one family photo a month, send me an email (link on sidebar) and join us next month on the 5th. It's fun and you'll have some great photos of your whole family.

If you want to check out the PROJECT LIFE Blog Hop, keep on scrolling down through this post, and then don't forget to head over to JO's blog to see her lovely family photo for the month.

Here are all the May 5 FAMILY x 12 blog hop participants in case you should get lost along the way, come back here and find your way:

May 5 FAMILY x 12 Blog Hop Participant List

Margie  <--- You are HERE.

Jo http://www.mrsbeee.blogspot.com   <--- Go here NEXT.

Ruth http://www.chattycraftyartypig.blogspot.com

Jill http://jillconyers.com

Moncia http://questtoperfectimperfection.blogspot.com  

Patricia http://patoliveira.wordpress.com/

 

PROJECT LIFE BLOG HOP

First of all, THANKS to Jill for hosting the montly Project Life blog hop even though she was too crazed this month to participate. So nice of her not to cancel.

Unfortunately, I, too, am not ready yet! I am furiously working on my Project Life post, but I will not have it ready on time. I have to run out and then I'll be back to publish. Please check back in a few hours.

EDITED: It took me two days to get my pages finished, photographed, published (our internet has been slow as molasses here in China lately) and posted, so I created a totally new post, HERE. Sorry for the delay!

But in the meantime, you can check out all of my other PROJECT LIFE posts here or please don't let me stop you from checking out the rest of the amazing Project Life inspiration on our hop. Next on the list is DEVON.

Margie You are HERE.

Devon http://www.youhadmeatneurotic.com <--- Go here NEXT.   Nikki www.inkyart.com.au

Laew www.crafty-creativity.blogspot.com

Lois http://loishouston.typepad.com/thoughts-along-lifes-highway/

Helen www.helen-mills.blogspot.com

Jennifer http://vogtstories.blogspot.com

Brighton www.dearbrighton.wordpress.com

 

Monster Eyeball or Fruit? And other Photography Challenges...

I am having fun over at Ella Publishing doing as many of their daily challenges as I can as part of Spring Training 2012.

They have a photography coach who challenged people to use window light to take a nice photo. This is something I used to love to do when taking portraits of my kids. I still do it when I want to pose my kids for some reason, like the photo above.

Braden picked out this fruit from a vendor in front of our apartment. He couldn't wait to get it home and see what the inside looked & tasted like. And after he did, he thought it looked quite like an eyeball, so a photo was in order according to him. I pulled him over by the window, made sure my focus point was on his eye (a good portrait always has the eyes in focus) and I got this classic shot! I love the serious look on his face.

Another assignment gave us tips on how to get natural expressions from small children. But I figure a fun, fake expression from an 11-year-old would do the trick especially when he was the one who asked for the photo.

I used natural light from a window again. My subject being parallel to the light source producing flat light.

Don't worry! Nobody was hurt for this photo! My son went to a film workshop and learned how to make real(?) looking fake blood and he was having some fun with it.

Gotta love boys!

I'm linking up at DebDuty.com for This & That Thursday. Visit her blog to check it out.

May 1 OLW Blog Hop

Hello OLW blog hoppers! It is the first of the month, so as most of you know, it is time for our monthly ONE LITTLE WORD Blog Hop!

For those of you who are new here, ONE LITTLE WORD is a class taught by Ali Edwards at Big Picture Classes. It is a year long class with monthly assignments and we check in each month with a blog hop and share our assignments and keep each other accountable since keeping up with a year long class is no easy task! It is this group that guarantees I finish my assignments each month.

I've posted some blog hop business at the end of this post, so be sure to read that before you move on.

APRIL OLW ASSIGNMENT

This month we were to write a letter to our present self and finish up the letter with a note to ourself a year in the future. My life is again in flux so it was a hard letter for me to write. And I didn't do a very good job or tying in my word: LOVINGKINDNESS into my letter.

To my future self:

And my self-portrait for the month:

Before I send you off to the next blog on the list, bear with me as I take care of some blog hop business:

UPDATE REGARDING REMINDER EMAIL, ETC.

I have made some changes in the way I do blog hop stuff recently and I wanted to spell out exactly what I am doing in case it has been confusing for any of you.

As a courtesy I will send out a REMINDER EMAIL during the last week of the month. This is to remind people to sign up as well as give those who signed up earlier in the month a chance to check for their name as well as the accuracy of their blog link. If you do not receive this reminder email with five days left in the month, please visit my blog and check the participant list linked on my sidebar to see if your name is on it OR EMAIL ME! 

This REMINDER EMAIL is the ONLY email I will send out to our list each month. I am no longer sending out our final blog hop participant list via email. I was getting far too many bounced emails due to spam filters. Therefore, our list is now published on my blog. FINAL LIST WILL BE PUBLISHED 1-2 days before the blog hop. You can find the link to that list a ways down on my blog's sidebar (look to the right and scroll down) or in your REMINDER EMAIL.

When all else fails - EMAIL ME. Preferably 4 or 5 days before the blog hop! The sooner, the better!

If you miss any of the deadlines and don't find yoursself on the list, you are always welcome to link to your OLW blog post for the month in the comments. That even goes for today!

Ok, now on to some more amazing OLW inspiration...

Next on the blog hop is Monica.

 

MAY 1 OLW Blog Hop Participants

Margie   http://xnomads.typepad.com/blog/one-little-word

Monica   http://scrapinspired.com/

Jamie    jmpgirl.blogspot.com

Lisa     http://backtoallen.com/category/challenges/one-little-word/

Jenn     www.studiojenn.blogspot.com

Jill    http://jillconyers.com/

Veronica     www.veronicanorris.typepad.com

Cheri    http://cheriandrews.blogspot.com

Monica B    http://questtoperfectimperfection.blogspot.com/

Ruth     http://suburbansahm.blogspot.com

Kaylea    www.myscrappylife.com

Cindy    http://www.cynthiacrysdale.com/

Donna    http://holimess.blogspot.com/

Kelly    http://mindingmynest.com

Carolina    www.micinnamons-en.blogspot.com

Cindy    http://seriousplay.typepad.com

Naomi    http://poeticaperture.com

Nikki    www.inkyart.com.au

Amanda    http://scrappnbee.blogspot.com

Rebekah    http://istampscrapcraft.blogspot.com/

Tere    http://terecontodomicorazon.blogspot.com/

Kimberlee     http://scrapsandsass.blogspot.com

Brighton    www.dearbrighton.com

Kristina     http://hrinspirationfromthe403.blogspot.ca/

Missus Wookie    http://mrswookieswanderings.blogspot.com/