Digital Scrapbooking 101

We've Moved!

It's official.  The Digiscrap101 blog has a new home.  This doesn't mean much except a change of address.  If you are reading this on a blog reader, you may need to change your subscription or re-subscribe at our new home.  

At this point you may also want to sign up for email updates  which include weekly emails of blog posts, a monthly newsletter and more.  I've been working on November's newsletter (comes out early next week) and I can't wait to share it!

Thanks to all my readers for your continued support.  It is my sincere hope that this move will make the content of Digiscrap101 much more accessible for you.

See you around!

Everything is Black and Gold...

Black and Gold

by Nancy Byrd Turner

Everything is black and gold,
Black and gold, to-night:
Yellow pumpkins, yellow moon
Yellow candlelight;

Jet-black cats with golden eyes
Shadows black as ink,
Firelight blinking in the dark
With a yellow blink

Black and gold, black and gold
Nothing in between-
When the world turns black and gold
Then it's Halloween!

This was the first poem I ever was tasked with memorizing and reciting in first grade at school.  Everytime Halloween rolls around with autumn leaves and crisp cool air these words roll around in my head.  

My favorite school Halloween event of all time was a zombie play put on by a good friend who was also my son's teacher at the time.  She was amazing - glow in the dark makeup, white shredded "zombie" shirts and a black light (my son is holding the moon in this photo):

I've been spending a bit of time looking over all my Halloween photos of the past to inspire my photo list for this year.  So far I'm planning to capture:

• Jack-o-lanterns
• Candy in a bowl
• All the kids together in costume
• The kids with their loot
• Individual snapshots of kids in costume
• Getting ready for the big night
• Mom and Dad passing out candy/trick or treating with the kids

How about you?  What's on your photo list for Halloween?

The above photo overlay was done by my friend Celeste Rockwood-Jones.  She has another amazing Halloween freebie here.

 

*P.S.  In the next few days we'll be making some changes to the site, we appreciate your patience with us as we work to improve your experience here at Digiscrap101.*

Curating Leads to Creativity

I often find that the more time I spend in my library curating images and looking things over with searches in different contexts, the more creative ideas come to me - like this layout for my daughter Grace:

With my digital photo organization and digital supply library it is very easy to find photos to create with and then also to quickly search for matching papers and templates.  I pulled this together in less than twenty minutes.

Another note for those of you in Finding Photo Flow who are knee-deep in photo tagging - taking time away from organizing to create is really good for your creative soul...

**Products used:  Template, Journaling Block, paper by Holly McCaig (retired kit).

It's All About Perspective...

Sometimes the way that we approach anything can make a huge difference in how we see it...

The journaling reads: Standing up mowing my lawn, dandelions seem like the worst nuisance ever.  They grow, bloom and then reproduce like rabbits... However, 15 minutes behind my macro lens and they look completely different.  Tiny details - hundreds of petals, frayed edges, beautiful sunshine color.  Aren’t we all in some ways like the dandelion?  Don’t we all have qualities that aren’t  appreciated by those around us?  Yet at a different time or place or in different company we are valued beyond our wildest dreams?   Sometimes all you need is a little shift in perspective.

What could a shift in perspective do for you today?

* Layout template found here.

10 Quotes to Spring You from a Creative Rut

"People usually consider walking on water or in thin air as a miracle.  But I think the real miracle is to walk on earth.  Every day we are engaged in a miracle which we don't even recognize; a blue sky, white clouds, green leaves, the black, curious eyes of a child - our own two eyes.  All is a miracle."     Thich Nhat Hanh

"With an eye made quiet by the power of harmony, and the deep power of joy, we see into the life of things."  William Wordsworth

"Creativity involves breaking out of established patterns in order to look at things in a differen way."  Edward do Bono

"Let us endeavor so to live that when we come to die even the undertaker will be sorry."  Mark Twain

"If we could see the miracle of a single flower clearly, our whole life would change."  Buddha

"Each of us literally chooses, by his way of attending to things (or curating our stories), what sort of universe he shall appear to himself to inhabit."  William James

  "Wisdom begins with wonder."  Socrates

"Pausing to listen to an airplane in the sky, stooping to watch a ladybug on a plant...children have their own agendas and timescales.  As they find out more about their world and their place in it, they work hard not to let adults hurry them."  Cathy Nutbrown

"Everybody needs his memories.  They keep the wolf of insignificance from the door."  Saul Bellow
"A hidden connection is stronger than an obvious one."  Heraclitus of Ephesus