Episode 44: Monkey Proof

Tangie Baxter joins the gang today as we discuss Art Journaling and Digital Art Journaling. What is it? How do you do it? What do you need to get started and why might you want to try it? You might be surprised to find out how many of us have done some art journaling!

You can download this episode by right clicking and saving this link.

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Joining the Discussion:

Tangie Baxter
Peppermint Granberg

Katie Nelson
Steph

From the Show:

Picks:

Peppermint: The Belle Brigade

Katie: Mess: The Manual of Accidents and Mistakes by Keri Smith

Steph: The Digi Dares

Tangie: Mindy Lacefield of TimsSally

Sponsors:

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This entry was posted in Katie, Peppermint, Show Post, Steph, Tangie Baxter. Bookmark the permalink.

54 Responses to Episode 44: Monkey Proof

  1. Elizabeth says:

    I started listening to today’s show and the recording sounds funny. The voices are not layered, but seperate with a lot of silence. Thanks!!

    • StudioWendy says:

      Maybe try again? I just listened to the entire thing through iTunes and it was working fine.

  2. esther_a says:

    It seems that we can only hear Stef in the show. Such a shame!

  3. BlueFeathered1 says:

    I am getting a really big head from all the attention you are giving me. I think that I may need to secure some more blue feathers to cover it! Thanks for the guidance on the avatar. I’m sure you noticed that I Photoshopped in a Daily Digi button (it’s a little jaggie because I just used your web button). I took Tangie’s Art Journaling class in Vegas (but it didn’t stay there which I hope is legal) and I joined her Caravan. That original page I made in her class now lives loud and proud in my Project Life binder (this is all getting so digi-incestuous!). As for the sound on the show, I thought it was cool. It was stereo with Steph coming out of the left speaker and everyone else on the right speaker. May those that couldn’t hear everyone where listening on a monaural device or only had one earbud or one side of the headphone on.

  4. steph says:

    Sorry! Joyce is right, that’s what the problem was! It’s fixed now…I think…let me know if not! :)

  5. willimena says:

    This is unrelated to the current show, but not sure where to comment. Just want to say I love the show. I do alot of ferrying kids from one place to another and get excited when I have the car to myself and can listen to the digi show. The digi show episodes I’m up to have mentioned how Katrina (I think) counts signing up for LOAD and not completing each day, but thinking about layouts, as scrapbooking. Well I had to tell you that listening to the digi show not only makes me happy but makes me feel connected to scrapbooking even when I can’t actually get a chance to scrapbook. You guys are great. Keep being yourselves – I love the mix of personalities!

  6. carrie says:

    I haven’t finished listening to the show, but I wanted to thank you for sharing my comment about The Digi Files (and your sweet words about it). TDD helped me complete an insane task that I thought at first was impossible: Within the span of 5 weeks I went through 350 family photos spanning 60 some years, processed 184 photos, then scrapped 90 layouts for my in laws 50th anniversary, creating my first ever photo book. I have to say I could not have done it without The Daily Digi– I must have read the post that reviewed photo book printers a thousand times alone.

    In the middle of creating those pages the USB drive that had the bulk of my kits on it broke (I’m still looking for someone to fix it!!). That was when I thank my stars for my Digi Game subscription. Not only did have kits from April and May, but since subscribing I developed the confidence to buy kits I knew I’d be able to work with easily because all the exposure and experience that comes along with a subscription. That may not seem important on the surface, but when you are creating several LOs a day the last thing you want is to realize the kits don’t flow with your style. On top of that, all the tips, ideas and inspiration that from the The Daily Digi kept my creative fire burning. It helped me make the impossible possible.

    The book turned out better than I imagined and we are presenting it to my husband’s parents tomorrow night (I’ll probably cry). I could not have pulled off all that insane scrapping without my daily dose of the The Daily Digi. I have an enormous amount of gratitude for what you all do for us memory keepers. (group hug) If your interested, you can see the entire album here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/43259159@N07/sets/72157629484618466/

    I feel like I need a badge now. :)

    Onto the topic of the show, art journaling, I have to say that I LOVE IT!! The first time I saw an art journal in real life was actually an project that a friend’s 15 year old daughter did in her high school art class years ago. She took an old book and turned into an amazing work of art. It’s something I’ve always wanted to do, but since it’s a “me” kinda endeavor, it’s on the back burner. I see that there is a class on Scrapbook Graphics…it looks so fun! It may have to be my next digi adventure.

    I’m also really looking forward the show with Joyce as a guest. :)

    • BlueFeathered1 says:

      Carrie, I found your story very inspiring. You set a task for yourself and you achieved it with grace and style even when, horror of horrors, your drive crashed. I looked at all the pages on Flickr and especially love the oldest lady on page 20w — she looks like just the kind of woman we all aspire to be when we are old enough! I made 50th and 55th wedding anniversary projects for my parents and they were a source of pride and conversation for them until they died. I’m sure you’ve given your in-laws a greater gift than you realize today. And sharing the pages was a gift to “women of a certain age” as the backgrounds in the photos and the clothes and hairstyles were all wonderful, no horrible, no wonderful — maybe our current eyes think the looks are tacky but our old eyes drink them in and love them! Thanks for sharing this — gotta go, my eyes are a little runny. Joyce.

      • carrie says:

        Oh Joyce, *passing the kleenex* thanks for such a touching reply! I have to say that I LOVED seeing the styles of clothing and hair through the years. Page 20 is one of my personal faves! The women on my mother in laws side of the family (and my mother in law) are pretty amazing. I got to read some of their journals… and wow. I do want to be like that when I grow up. :)

        My husband’s parents loved the book (whew!). It turned out to be a big hit with the party goers, too. Digi scrap has now been introduced to a lot of new people as well as conversations of what to do with old photos. It’s practically all I talked about at the party.

        Some how a huge box of old family photos and mementos arrived the following weekend… I think it’s a hint. LOL I promised my son his own book first.

        In case anyone is interested: I have to say that I was impressed with Blurb.com. I did opt for the upgraded paper and I did a dust jacket (which I really liked) instead of an image wrapped cover. I used borders instead of full bleed (I didn’t plan for bleed and the book was 12 x 12). The quality was better than I expected and it was easy to put together. It was quite lovely and it took a week from ordering it to arrive. I was happy with Blurb!

    • Katie says:

      Um, you definitely deserve a badge… maybe some sort of diploma for completing such a fantastic project! I’m impressed :)

    • steph says:

      Wow! What a BIG project!! Thanks for sharing the link, I went and looked a bit, you did a GREAT job!! How sweet of you to give TDD so much credit, but really, it couldn’t have been done without your determination, hard work, and heart! It will be a treasure!

  7. Angie Gladwell says:

    I just looked at it. You did an awesome job. They are going to be in tears when they see it!!!

  8. StudioWendy says:

    I had to take on the challenge of finding out when the Digi Dares started and who was behind it, because I couldn’t remember either! The original blog (thedigidares.blogspot.com) was started in August of 2006 and was referred to as “We Digi Dare Ya.” Sadly, the original blog with the original dares are long gone. They relocated to digidares.com in December 2008, starting with Dare #111.

    There have been a lot of darers over the years, but the first two dares were done by Jen Caputo and Kate Hadfield, respectively. I found a blog that referenced the team as of Dare #3 which also included Ashley Olson (Ash Scraps), Cindy Simon (Simon Says Scrap), Emily Boetel (She Scraps), Shelly Greninger (Just Me), Stacie Prinzo (Designs by Stacie) and Tiffany Hix (Tiff Scrappin’). Not too long after that Gina Miller joined too.

    So, there you go, a brief history of the origins of the Digi Dares. And, if you want to know more, you’ll have to go ask Kate Hadfield!

    • Katie says:

      Thanks for chiming in Wendy, I remember so many of those original ladies and it’s fun to think about those days. After we finished recording, I remembered that I actually applied to be a darer around the time that Gina Miller joined but I didn’t get accepted. I totally forgot about that.

    • Kate says:

      Wendy is absolutely right! The Digi Dares was founded by me in August 2006 and ownership of the blog passed over to Traci Reed at the end of 2008. Sadly the earlier dares weren’t migrated over to the new blog and the infamous breast cancer inspired dare by MandaBean has been lost!

  9. Allie says:

    Loved this show! I love the idea of art journaling, but as a perfectionist, even in crafty things, I am never happy with how my pages turn out. I’ve tried to “mimic” several different styles (Elsie Flannigan & co, Janel from Run With Scissors, Karen Grunberg, Donna Downey…) but haven’t really found anything that fits “me” yet. Onto trying it the digi way!

    Thanks for a great show ladies!

    (Sidenote: Peppermint, I’m really anxious to see if you do anything in the “Art Journaling Minimalist Way” — please share if you do! I love your work more than I should say ;) #fangirl)

  10. Allie says:

    Another note: I just checked out Tangie’s “Tangible Plans.”

    OMG. That is the coolest thing I have ever ever ever seen in the digi world (which is saying a lot, because the digi world is SO cool.)

    Steph, any way we could convince Tangie to put the starter kit in the Digi Files?? ;) That would make MY heart sing! ;)

    • steph says:

      Well since everything that appears in The Digi Files is the products first appearance online, I don’t think it will work. :( They are cool though aren’t they?!

      • Allie says:

        I don’t know why I never realized that about the digi files! Wow!

        But yes, they are cool!! Thanks for having tangie talk about them!

  11. Denise S. says:

    I really enjoyed the show. I want to get Tangie’s Tangible Plans. I’ll have to watch the video so I can justify buying…lol

    Great show everyone!

  12. Amy in TX says:

    Great show, as usual, but this topic really spoke to me. My 9 year old daughter is so creative and loves to play with scrapbooking supplies on the computer, making layouts with no photos. I’ve been introducing her to art journaling as a way for her to express herself and I hope I can get her to listen to the show to hear Tangie’s wonderful explanations about what art journaling is. She was much more eloquent than I have been.

    I have been making computer desktops out of digital papers that really “speak” to me, and I now realize that I should be making art journal pages with them! It’s funny how I go in phases, for a while everything was muted and simple…lately, everything has been rainbow-colored. I will have to explore what that means.

    Thanks again for a great topic!

    • Amy in TX says:

      Just finished the show and downloaded Tangie’s zine. Wow! Can’t wait to share it with my daughter!

    • steph says:

      I love the way Tangie describes and talks about art journaling. It just makes so much sense to me!

  13. Linda says:

    I have a suggestion for a future show. I would love to hear more about hybrid use. Yes, I know that home decor was recently discussed with JS (my scrappy idol) however, I am thinking more specifically card making and layouts.

    With the Silhouette Cameo, trace and cut in addition to print and cut, I really and thinking more and more of ditching all of my paper.

    I have made several flat layered digi cards that I then print and slap on to a card but I am thinking more of the lines of listeners that cut out the images and then use them.

    OH…and another topic, I often wonder the cost difference of owning a website with a remote server to hold your files rather than online backup plans. Would love to hear from listeners if anyone does that.

    Hugs

    • Linda, I’ve owned several websites over the years (and still have 2) and know that the terms of use for hosting usually exclude you using your hosting account for backup/storage. I’ve had my web hosts after me a few times on my digital stores for having a lot of files that look like they are just being “stored” when they are actually files for sale. So they do check!

    • steph says:

      I would think it might be okay with a dedicated server, but they are not cheap. They are more than monthly back up fees would be. This bigger problem though, to me, would be that it’s hard to make them secure and I wouldn’t want anyone that happens on the site to be able to download. :(

  14. LeslieM says:

    Peppermint, I use ACDSee14 and opened some TIFF files with it. They popped right up with no lag time. I am always surprised to hear Katie doesn’t use ACDSee. I use it just like Windows Explorer. You can see more types of files in ACDSee and I can search from my lightroom keywords, put scrapping supplies and photos in my favorites bin, etc. I love both ACDSee and Lightroom. Leslie

    • Katie says:

      I would probably like ACDsee better now. I tried one of the earliest versions and didn’t like it then. I’m sure it’s much better now, but I’m also happy with my current approach. :)

  15. Kathy Simkins says:

    I notice that there have been several comments about the life or lack thereof of external hard drives used by digi scrappers. I just caught a show about the Consumer Electonics Show in Las Vegas. They showed a product that might be the answer to this problem. ioSafe hard drives… Check them out on their website. The demos they did on the show I saw and also on their website shows them hitting it with lightning, dropping it from 20 feet and other tortures. It is a bit pricey but they do have them on E-Bay and Amazon, too for a fair price if they can go thru this kind of treatment. Hope it helps some. ( I downloaded all the papercutting episodes of the Digi Show! Can’t wait to listen and learn from them.) Love you ladies!

    • Deirdre says:

      Excited to look into these—thanks for sharing this tip! A dependable EHD would be a dream come true (btw…just 10 more days on my CrashPlan upload!).

    • Katie says:

      Wow – cool idea! I would love to hear if anyone tries one of these.

  16. Lia says:

    I love Tangie’s Tangible Plans (my printer, not so much) so I was thinking I could put together a whole bunch of pages and get them printed like I would a photo book. Do anyone know if you can actually write on that type of photo paper?

    Thanks for doing this show every week gals, you never fail to make me laugh!

    • StudioWendy says:

      Typically I suggest the matte finish when you want to write on a print. I’ve never tried to write on a photographic print though, so someone else can hopefully chime in on that. I guess it depends what type of writing instrument you use too. A sharpie would probably write on anything. :) But, that might not be what you want to use. I do know that MPT can now do double-sided prints too by special request if that’s of interest.

    • Peppermint says:

      Do you have a local Office Max/Office Depot type store or another commercial print shop nearby? I know with the big box office stores you can just upload your prints (JPG, PDF, TIFF) online and then pick them up in store. Most of them are around 50 cents for a color copy, so it would cost less and your pages would be printed on regular copy paper so you can write on them with whatever you want. Plus you could probably send off several of them and pick them up a few hours later. I know I’m impatient like that.

      • StudioWendy says:

        That’s a great option too because with a planner, you don’t really need it to be archival like the scrapbook printers are doing. So, you can go with the less expensive paper and ink and get something that’s more “writable.”

      • StudioWendy says:

        Oh, and most can bind it with wire binding too if you want to go that route.

  17. Anna Forrest says:

    Anyone tried to import their PSE tagged images into lightroom? I don’t use PSE myself, but my mother does and I have had to hack her PSE database so many times to fix it when she’s moved photos incorrectly I’d really like to get her away from it to something more reliable. But she’s invested so much time in tagging she’ll be really unhappy with me if I tell her she’ll lose it all :)

    • steph says:

      I think there is a way to add the tags to the metadata. If you can do that, you will be able to import them into Lightroom without a problem. Maybe google it? I would love to hear what you find out.

  18. Nikki says:

    For all my Mac girls out there (I know it is NOT Katie, Peppermint or Steph! LOL) Check out Aperture for photo management. It is such an easy interface to use, cheaper ($80) and has really powerful editing tools. Just like Lightroom, there are several presets you can load (from basic tweaks, to fun “Instagram-like” presets), brushes, easy ways to tag, manage Metadata, and it handles RAW files beautifully.

    Just throwing out a different option! : )

    Thanks for a great show ladies.

    • Sherry A says:

      Nikki,
      I use Aperture too and like it. Do you know if there are pre-sets out there for purchase like there are for Lightroom?
      Thanks!
      Sherry

      • iDebbie says:

        I use Aperture presets from the Aperture Expert, Joseph, at http://www.apertureexpert.com/presets. However, Joseph has a warning on this page right now that there’s a conflict with Aperture 3.3 and installing these presets. He’s working on a fix. If you don’t have A3.3 yet, then there’s no problem. I’m sure there’s lots more presets out there for Aperture, so maybe Nikki or others will chime in. I just haven’t looked b/c I’m happy with Joseph’s for the little bit of editing I do.

        Joseph also does live webinar training sessions for Aperture and then sells them for just $2 afterwards. He’s a great teacher! There’s a lot of great info in these videos so I buy them all for reference as needed. They work great on my iPad too.

        Hope this helps. :)

  19. iDebbie says:

    I use Aperture! Love it! :)

  20. THANK YOU for this show. It has pushed me “over the edge” to try art journaling and I think I am going to be hooked because I am already planning out my next pages. I had the most wonderful dream about an AMAZING page I was working on too! I posted my first ever page and some thoughts on art journaling on my blog today:

    http://christinesmith.net/six-impossible-things/

    Next up, I will be joining the Art Journal Caravan. wooohoooo

  21. Sherry A says:

    Hello Ladies!
    Thanks again for a wonderful show… I enjoyed hearing Tangie talk about art journalling. I found her via your show, and starting participating in her Art Journal Caravan, which has been so much fun. I can’t participate every week, but I find the prompts give me a starting point for many types of projects. If I don’t feel inspired to do a LO, it allows me to “warm up” my creativity, and I will usually proceed to work on a page after playing with one of the art journalling prompts. One of our art teachers at my school explained art journalling vs collage to me by telling me that you don’t know where the art journal will take you. The play and experimentation will channel something in your sub-conscience. A collage (or scrapbook LO for me) is planned and intentional. The placement of the items, colors, elements & design are meaningful and purposeful. The last thing I wanted to thank you for was for bringing The Digi Dare web site to my attention. I created a quick layout for dare #280 & *won* the random pick of the week! I look forward to more Digi Show goodness this week!

  22. steph says:

    You are welcome! So glad you are enjoying (and using) what we talk about! :)

  23. SarahT says:

    I somehow listened to this show twice, but I’m really glad I did!!! I remember when Tangie was on before and talked about art journaling, and after hearing her I really wanted to try it. The first time I listened to this episode I thought, “Oh yeah, I remember her. I should try this art journaling thing.” After listening again, I though, “Well snap, I’m gonna do it!!” So I made my first page!!! I don’t even know if I did it right, but according to Tangie there are no rules…just work through something personally, and I did!
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/sarahscrappin/7551612728/in/photostream
    I thought once my kids were a little older we wouldn’t have “sleep battles” anymore…..oh was I wrong!!

  24. Angie says:

    I love your page! I could replace your son’s picture with mine and voila! I would be done.

    I bought Tangie’s Caravan and I am doing more paper AJ’s because I am behind on my regular digi layouts but it gives me lots of ideas for other digi things too.