My Monsters Miss you. Really.

While I was waiting for my new monsters to arrive, I made this card with some of my old monsters. The ones looking through the window are paper piece from The Alley Way Stamps set Toxic, and the blobby guy out front is from TAWS' Buggin' Out.

I was going to enter the sketch challenge at Paper Players, but I'm way to slow to get my stuff up in time. Here is the site, and here is the sketch I was attempting to follow:

It's another one for the Operation Write Home box. I'm looking at maybe sending a small 6x6" box by May at this rate.

On a funny side note, this is the straightest picture I could get in a reasonable amount of time with my back patio photo setup. Hey, it is very breezy today; a totally BEAUTIFUL Florida spring day.

But I really need to work on my indoor photo setup so I can stop chasing paper around the patio.

It's all low tech behind the scenes

For the second time in a month, a coworker is leaving for a better job. I'm going to really miss her because she is such a hard worker. The last one that left got a good luck card that wasn't library themed. She deserved better. This time I wanted to re-create for Cheryl a card I had seen on the Internet.

So, I copied a card I'd seen on the Lawn Fawn blog, by Yainea that I absolutely loved. But when I pulled out my Dewey Decimal paper I saw that I had the full sized version, and the card was made from the scaled down version of 6" x 6" paper.  My "fix" was to make the card bigger, but really, scale matters a lot. On the original, there were several drawers going in both directions, but on mine I could only fit 2 full drawers across.

The dog coming out of the catalog drawer should be bigger in relation to the size of the drawer.  I used skinny bakers' twine instead of ribbon so that it wouldn't overwhelm the little doggie.

Now, what's so low tech here? Well I thought I'd share my picture taking setup with you all. I don't have a fancy light box, I just take things out to the back patio and prop them up on the table like this:

Yeah it's all good until the wind blows stuff down into a puddle.

My mother's old photo album

This last week I went "home" to Bartow to the funeral of my uncle Jack. While we were there, my Aunt Marion gave me my mother's old photo album. She must have had it since 1974 when my grandmother died.

When we opened the bag to look at it, we immediately recognized the cover. Really, who would lean against a cactus?

Anyway, there is no back on it and the pages are crumbling apart. I took pictures of all the pages in case anyone wants to try to identify any of the Martin clan or friends.

You can see it here:

http://s59.beta.photobucket.com/user/melonhead-06/library/EmmyLu%20photos

Now, I will scan all the photos, and remount these into a new album. I have the album all picked out, but I have to decide on plain black pages like the original, or pretty patterned paper like in modern scrapbooks. I'm awaiting feedback from any and all.

Here is my grandmother and her four children. My mother is on the far right.

This. This is why I love digital photography.

This isn't a great snapshot, but we love our family. I'm finally getting around to scanning and color correcting all the photos from my Dad's house, and I saved the album from the 70s for last. Woah, I should have gotten those puppies out of that album sooner.

Most of them are faded and quite a few have visible foxing and acid damage from the album. I am not a skilled photo restorer, nor do I think a lot of these are worth it, being Instamatic type shots, but they are a good reminder of our past.  Look at this album. If this is what your old albums look like, GET YOUR PICTURES OUT! Yes I am yelling. The acid in the paper is eating away at your memories.

Oh, back up your digital pictures too, while you are at it!

Trippin' down memory lane - 1978?

I got one of those portable scanners and I said to myself - wow this is going to go so much faster than the flatbed I used to use! Just press a button and slide over the photo! Do 3 or 4 in the time it used to take to scan one!

Hold your horses, Bucko. The scanning does go faster. But each and every photo must be cropped and color corrected and renamed and sorted into logical folders. Where's that speed now, huh?

More about my insanely ambitious scanning projects later.

Anyway, here is a photo of Paula H and me on Halloween in 1977 or 78. Damned if I can remember which one. I'm in my old-fashioned librarian costume. SSSSHHHH!