Episode 2: Craft Closet of Broken Dreams

Join Steph, Katie, Peppermint, and Noell as we discuss some of the differences between digital and paper products; styles, designers and their accessibility. We also discuss the differences in how we shop for products based on digital or paper project.

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You can download the show by right clicking and select “save as”.

Joining the Discussion:
Steph
Katie Nelson
Peppermint Granberg
Noell Hyman

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Picks of The Week:
Noell: Lowe Pro Slingshot 200 AW
Katie: DearPhotograph.com
Peppermint: Diaro
Steph: Cartolina

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46 Responses to Episode 2: Craft Closet of Broken Dreams

  1. Liz M. says:

    You’re killing me! The podcast shuts off after the first 15 or so minutes! HELP!

    • Peppermint says:

      I just noticed that too, Liz! I sent Steph an email and hopefully, as the big fancy producer, she’ll be able to get the full version uploaded here shortly.

      • Liz M. says:

        The sad thing was the first time it happened DH’s speakers were really loud and I thought it screwed up my iPhone. Yes I blamed my husband and his friend online.

  2. Lisa says:

    Oh thank goodness it wasn’t just me. I thought I broke my ipod – lol!

    Well from what I heard it was nice having Noell on TDS.

  3. steph says:

    I’m pretty sure it’s fixed. My ftp program had gremlins and kept uploading the same file over and over…not sure what that’s all about!

  4. Melissa says:

    Not sure how to get iTunes to redownload it :)

    Oh and I get you Noell – I lived in Kalgoorlie for a few years, where it was SOOOO hot in summer we did our bbqs in April too! We would have regular 45 degree days.

    • Noell says:

      To get the episode again, you should be able to delete it, then left-click on the name of the show and choose Show All Available Episodes.

      And, yes! My problem is that since nobody’s talking about having BBQ’s and picnics in April, I’m not thinking about it as much either. It’s not until I see everyone else doing it in Jun/Jul that I go, “Hey, I wanna do that!” ;)

      • Liz M. says:

        I feel your pain Noell! I live in AZ too and I love looking at all the great summer activities but simply not realistic in 115 degree weather.

  5. linda says:

    OMG, love Peppermint’s talk about her craft closet. I don’t think we should ever stop trying new things and experimenting! Variety is the spice of life… and I don’t see anything wrong with liking to do something for a period of time and then changing to something else. We all change and grow over time… keep filling that closet, I say :)

    • steph says:

      I totally agree! I always say that I was a hobby hopper until I found digital. I’ve just been so happy with digital, hybrid, and altered that I really haven’t wanted to try anything else. :)

  6. Lucrecia says:

    I just listened to episode 28 on scrapping non-kid layouts. I’m about to have an almost monumental birthday. I’m already dreading the big one and thought it would be a good year to do more pages about me and this place in my life. I do feel like that is putting me (more) behind in scrapping pictures of my kids and I appreciate the reminder that my kids will one day be as interested in an album about me.

    Steph mentioned a review / aam layout by Heather but I couldn’t find it in previous show notes, can you re-link to that?

  7. Peppermint says:

    I’m always nosing into my parents’ business and my husband’s parents’ business – and they’re usually so caught off guard that anyone would even be interested to know about them. One day your kids will want to know about your inner workings, and the thing is they’ll remember a lot of their memories already because they were there. They’ll know next to nothing about where you were in life. I would KILL to be able to dig through a scrapbook or a journal that my mom made – she was a total enigma during my childhood years. It might put you a little behind in scrapping the kids, but you may find that the personal reward helps mitigate that a bit.

    • Katie says:

      I totally agree! I so wish I could have more details about all of them. We need to remember that others will feel the same way about us. :)

  8. Liz M. says:

    Another fabulous show (once the weird hiccup was fixed). I was fascinated by the topic of shopping habits. I have read many a thread in forums about people who don’t reuse kits! I guess I subscribe to the theory that I wouldn’t use paper products just once so why would I use digi products just once too. That being said, I still shop a bunch too!

    I find that I do love theme kits but ones with enough generic items that I can use it for non-themed pages as well. And I too go through spells of using a new kit every time, but in the end I always circle back to my favorites, like CD Muckosky’s brush alphas, Cindy Schneider’s templates, and Katie Hadfield doodles, along with some great CT kits.

    I would love to see more episodes like this, getting a contrasting view from more of a paper scrapper, like Noell, as opposed to all us digiscrappers. I find it interesting that even though we are all creating pages and preserving memories, the process can be so different.

    Also another great plug for Peppermint being a regular, her wit and dry humor kills me every time! I just bought her shadow class and I would say it’s a must have for any digi scrapper. (In fact, I think I will blog about it this weekend!) And I too have a Craft Room of Broken Dreams. Apparently the only craftiness that seems to stick is digiscrapping and making hair bows for my girls. My mother has taken pity on me and offered to finish up a sewing project I started. I didn’t have the heart to tell her that I had used the fabric for something else.

    • Deirdre says:

      As a relative newbie to digi scrapping, I love to hear people’s “go to”/favorite kits. Can’t wait to google these now, thanks for sharing!

      • Liz M. says:

        I love hearing about people’s go to products as well and I have been scrapping since 2009. I want to say there was a PDS show about fonts and I was fascinated by people’s favs, which were different than mine! And as your style evolves, your favorites do too.

        • mrshobbes says:

          Oh I absolutely agree! That’s happened to me so many times–which is why I can never pin down my exact style :) My taste keeps evolves!

    • steph says:

      My sister took pitty on me and finished a quilt I bought all of the stuff for 16 years ago. She told me that all I needed to do was get a back, put batting in it, and have it quilted. It’s still sitting in my laundry room waiting and that was this past October ;)

  9. Rachel says:

    I was so excited to listen this week that I couldn’t even wait for my slow Internet to download the episode to iTunes, so I listened from the site while it downloaded. Now that it’s finished downloading (and I’ve heard it once), I’m going to listen again! Thanks so much for another great show. Loved thinking about the differences between paper and digi, since I have done/do both. Keep up the good work!

  10. Rosann says:

    First off love u ladies

    Now on to peppermint’s dilemma in finding her perfect paper elements for project life. Check out Bo bunny’s paparrazzi line. It has elements that u mentioned. I’m happy to send u what I have left if you’d like. Just email me and my left overs are yours and there may still be a 12×12 or 2 in the stash. I wouldn’t want u to have to hide ur purchase lol. Hysterical on that, Katie. I’ve heard if hiding a shoe shopping spree but scrapbook paper? Love it. I wish my husband would dare say something about my scrap purchases! He knows better.

    • Peppermint says:

      Is it Mama-Razzi? That’s what I found on their site. I like the chipboard pieces from that collection so I’ll have to see about ordering them up. I need to sit down in front of Scrapbook.com one of these days and put together a group of things I can’t find at my local stores. Thanks for the tip!

    • Katie says:

      yep, I had a problem with the shopping and hiding. lol! Actually, I still do have a problem with digi shopping too much, but it’s all safely tucked away on my external hard drive! ;)

  11. Laurel says:

    Another great show, ladies! I can’t find the old “paperclipping digi shows” now though. Any suggestions to help me out?

  12. ari macias says:

    i LOVE this type of discussion:) i have my big toe in paper scrapping, but the rest of me is TOTALLY digi. after going thru a major period of enlightenment (aka the BIG minimize) i decided to try digital and it STUCK. YAY me. at one point i was seriously going to give up the scrapping. there was just no more room for bulky albums, not to mention the budget issues. this will be my third summer digi scrapping and all my books fit into one small bookcase. YAY me again:) i can budget for my purchases and account for every penny i spend. right now i am budget scrapping, you can view the blog posts here:
    http://simplescrapandstamp.blogspot.com/search/label/freebie%20summer
    scrapping with freebies i do-able if you try…but i also purchase thedailydigi files and kits that i know i will use over and over.

    • steph says:

      Yay you!! I was able to grab the Traci Reed brag book from the link on your blog. THANKS!

  13. Carolyn says:

    I’ve never listened to a podcast before and have to say that yours is my very first. I’ve been listening since episode one and I just LOVE being able to listen to you all talk and talk about my favorite subject. Nobody in my personal life wants to so it’s so much fun to be laughing and nodding along with the conversations. …Especially since whenever I venture into that topic with my family or friends I get that glazed over look and the “uh-huh, yeah, hmmmm’s” until I’m done. I try not to torture them too often. LOL So all that to say thank-you and I love the show. :)

    Anyways, hearing Noell talking about her design course got me to thinking about something that has been tickling my brain for a while. I have always scrapped 12×12 layouts and put the two pages together into a photobook. So the design principles I use work for the one page and I feel like the two side by side pages kind of compete for attention. I really want to scrap so both pages flow together and have started making 24×12 layouts. (Listening to one of your shows gave me the idea and I nearly smacked my forehead for not thinking of it long ago as I’ve been making my photobooks for over 6 years now!!) Anyways, now that I’ve started this I’m feeling overwhelmed with how to design the pages because there is SO much space to work with. Are design principles different with a rectangle rather than a square? Do you have any tips or techniques you can think of to help me design my layouts to look pleasing to the eye but over 2 pages instead of one? I have used some 2 page templates but I’d rather be able to do the layouts on my own. I wonder if it’s all silly and I should go back to the single 12×12’s and co-ordiate them, but I just love the look of it all flowing like it’s one page. Any thoughts??

    • Carolyn says:

      …. and to clarify what I mean by design I’m talking about how with a 12×12 you can use the rule of thirds or the visual triangle, using balance over such a wide distance, using odd numbers of elements. I know there is no hard and fast rule with scrapbooking, but I’m still wanting to make some eye candy rather than chaotic clutter.

      • Deirdre says:

        The rules are the same, just as design concepts for a 12×12 layout don’t change when applied to 8.5×11 layouts.

        I love the technique described on several shows of using a full page photo next to a layout, but ultimately I think the eye can only take in so much at a time and people will probably look at each page individually. Making sure the pages don’t clash might be more important than designing them as one canvas.
        Sounds like a good topic for the Daily Digi, with links or images of some of their favorite 2-page layouts:)

      • Noell says:

        Yeah, the principles are the same.

        If I were making a photo book of my layouts, I think I would make one layout full-page size (say, on the right) and then on the left I’d make my layout smaller so there’s white space around it.

        I’d have to play around with it but I might do something like like this:

        For an 8×8 size photo book, the layout on the left page is 8×8. For the right side my layout is shrunk down to 5×5. Maybe it’s centered. Maybe it’s all the way over to the ede.

        Then you’d get contrast between the two pages, a resting place for the eye, and it would be clear that they’re two separate pages.

        You could also do one layout on one side and a word in cool typography for the 2nd side for times when you just can’t find a second page to work with the first. Maybe even add a butterfly or some kind of element. It would be mainly white space.

    • Lyndel says:

      24 x 12, what an intriguing idea. Some head smacking here too ;-) Will have to try it out.

  14. Lyndel says:

    So excited to here my comment read out and have Peppermint say I’m a genius. Now to work out how to turn that into a ringtone ..

  15. mrshobbes says:

    Thanks for another fun show! I never thought I would fall in love with digiscrapping as much as I have–because I have never been the craftsy type. (I’ve ever scrapped a page about being uncraftsy) I nearly failed home ec classes, I can’t draw a straight line (using a ruler even!) and heck, my gift wrapping is more an exercise of how can I hide all the raw, unevenly cut edges of paper. It doesn’t stop me from drooling over all kinds of craft projects and trolling hybrid scrapping galleries. Recently I’ve gotten into looking at paper scrapping galleries and the layouts just make my jaw drop!

    In the end, however, I’m happy with digiscrapping. No mess, no fuss :) However, I am one of the unfortunate who can count on her fingers the number of pieces in my stash I’ve reused. It’s more specific elements than actual kits, but I do have my favorites (like neutral papers from one kit or doodled swirls from another, etc).

    Here’s something that occurred to me, though: I think the nature of digiscrap product shopping encourages hoarding. On the one hand, if all this means is a couple extra EHDs on the desk/shelf, what’s the big deal, right? On the other–and this is when I get it into my head to do massive purging–the sheer size of my stash overwhelms me to the point where I honestly ask myself “when on earth will I ever get to use this stuff??” And I’m talking about kits and product I purchase, not stuff from my creative teams, lol. However, knowing this doesn’t stop me from shopping! If it weren’t for the fact that I NEED to do the groceries, I would be shopping every week! LOL

    • Liz M. says:

      I would totally agree! I think the fact that there is nothing tangible to digi products does make it easy to hoard because it takes up no more space than an EHD. And then just a couple of clicks and things are gone. No need to empty the trash or dig through boxes and bags to throw things away. So I guess you don’t feel a guilt trip.

      Plus, the designers have so many new goodies every week! I totally concur that but for having to feed the fam, I would buy all the time!

  16. Charlene says:

    Hi there! I haven’t commented in a while, but did want to take the time to comment today. I have been driving my son back and forth to a camp this week (30 minutes both ways). i found myself listening to this episode and laughing out loud at you guys! Wanted to say congrats on leaving the nest! Looking forward to what you all have in store for us :)

  17. Kelly says:

    I need to finish listening, but wanted to chime in on the journaling mail. I recently bought this five-year diary that comes with a twist: each day asks a different question, and it totally makes me want to write in it, unlike the regular 5-year diary I bought a few months ago! As an example, a recent one was, Are you wearing socks? I took the opportunity to answer for my whole family, as I realized it’s kind of interesting that two of us almost always are and two of us almost always aren’t, this summer anyway.

    http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0307719774?ie=UTF8&force-full-site=1

  18. Sherry A says:

    I really enjoyed this show! Katie, Steph & Peppermint you are off to a great start as a “spin-off”. Congratulations! I found it ironic that Peppermint went to a scrapbook store to find camera-themed paper products, because I bought her Focal Point kit specifically for the cute camera elements. In fact my summer travel journal is a combination of her Vagabond & Focal Point kits with some 7Gypsies papers. I find decorating with store bought elements slow my process down. I end up making/modifying them to get them to work. I find it easier to print customized journalling notecards, stickers and word art from digital kits on paper & use those on my paper layout. It is cheaper to print these small items than buy them at my scrapbook store, and I have control over the size & color.
    On another topic brought up in the show… Noell mentioned AppleTV as a way to view her photos & LOs (love it), and questioned if LOs will need to be printed in the future… I am a teacher & attended an online seminar on publishing eBooks for our classroom. I thought ePublishing would also be a perfect way to do a share a scrapbook. On my summer to-do-list –I want to put together an iBook with our digital vacation LOs & photos. Here is the link to the apple tutorial on ePublishing http://support.apple.com/kb/ht4168 and here is the link to the archived webinar http://live.classroom20.com/1/post/2011/06/iauthor-an-ibook-megan-wilson.html

  19. Katie (sakura-panda) says:

    I reuse pieces and papers from digital kits all of the time. I am reluctant to download new kits and I go through everything I have already unzipped several times before I decide to break down and buy something new. I have a broadband connection, so it doesn’t take me a long time to download things, but I always put off doing it if I can help it.

    Too often I have bought a kit and found that I really could not work with it at all and now I am very conservative about my purchases. I would be interested to hear what criteria other people use when they are shopping and decide to purchase or download a kit. Is it enough that you know you will use one or two pieces or do you try to find a kit that has more flexibility and can potentially be used for several layouts?

    Noell — I have the same (or at least very similar) camera bag and I love it. I bought it at Costco several years ago and it works GREAT! I can finally carry a good number of lenses when we go on vacation; my old bags I would have to unpack half the bag every time I wanted to change lenses and with this one, they each have their own section and I don’t have to fuss with more than the one lens I want to take out.

  20. Andrea says:

    Now that we are slowly moving away from print, I find that I love digital frames. I just wish that they would make a square version! This seems SO obvious to me – there is a pretty wide customer base as there are lots and lots of digi scrapbookers (and even traditional scrapbookers that scan or take a photo of their layouts) out there. The rectangle digi frames don’t work well to show off 12×12 or 8.5×11 layouts. Not to mention that if you are just showing off your digi photos some of the photos are smaller than others because they are the wrong orientation! Square frames are the answer, I tell you :)

    I wish I knew how to go about developing that product – I could make my first million with a square digi frame, lol!

    • Katie (sakura-panda) says:

      I make five copies of every layout:
      1. Original PSD
      2. Flattened jpg, original size, for printing 12×12
      3. Resized jpg for posting online
      4. 12×18″ layout for my photo frame and iPad display
      5. 8×10″ layout for rectangular photo books and iPod display

      To make the 12×18, I take a blank canvas and copy my background all the way across and then I take the rest of my layout and center it. Basically I’m making the black bars on the iPad the same color as my background. Then I take the 12×18 and I resize it onto an 8×10 canvas, basically trimming off some of the extra on the sides.

      I went through a phase where I didn’t make any square digital layouts specifically because my display methods were not square and I wondered why I was making them square if I wasn’t displaying them that way. Then I decided I do want to mix them with my paper layouts, which means I do need square ones, and that’s when I came up with coloring the sides!

      Square layout: http://www.kindredcreations.com/kcgallery/displayimage.php?album=lastup&cat=15525&pos=291

      Same layout but oblong: http://www.kindredcreations.com/kcgallery/displayimage.php?album=lastup&cat=15525&pos=292

      The difference between seeing the black bars versus the pp ones on my iPad is *amazing*. I wouldn’t think it would make the layout seem bigger and brighter, but it does!

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