Tuesday, August 05, 2008

My other hobby

I like to crochet. It is my longest lasting hobby. I learned to crochet from my maternal grandmother when I was 7 and have been doing it off and on ever since. I have a newer hobby as well. I am a digital scrapbooker. I started digi scrapping in 2005. I've always liked the idea of scrapbooking but it just seemed so much work to get all those supplies out, not too mention the issue of having an infant & toddler underfoot, so I would constantly be having to put everything away. There was the storage issue and the costs of supplies. I have no space for all the paper, ribbons, buttons, die cutters, etc and no income to buy them. The biggest issue though was scissors. I am not good with scissors. I can't cut a straight line to save my life.

A friend of mine discovered digital scrapbooking in Aug 2005 and sent me some links to Digital Scrapbook Place. They had a lot of tutorials for Paint Shop Pro. I'd heard of digital scrapbooking but everything I'd seen was about using Photoshop. I am a PSP user and have been since 2002. I was already using PSP to create sigs & blinkies for a parenting forum and it turned out to be a very easy step to start scrapping. Scrapping digitally was just what I needed. All my supplies are in one small space, unreachable by little fingers. I can endlessly reuse the supplies I buy, making it much cheaper than paper (assuming you actually do reuse the kits, otherwise it can be just as expensive) and undo any mistakes I make. I have my layouts printed at various online sites or bound into a photo book.

I stayed active in the forums at DSP for over a year, taking classes, buying supplies, completing challenges and posting layouts. Then I started visiting other sites, buying things from many stores & doing a variety of challenges. I've been settled at the Sweet Shoppe for several months now. I love the designers there, the community is friendly and I find the challenges inspiring. I complete about a dozen or so layouts a month. These are some of my most recent ones.


The boys on a camping trip

brothers

Havoc doing carpentry work

allboy1

Some mini golf in the yard with family

puttputt1

I saw a kit called "Mischief & Mayhem" and had to use it.

mayhem1

There are, perhaps, too many dinosaurs in my life.

dions1

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

I crochet too! Started when I was about 8. And I'm left-handed to boot, so all my patterns are backwards. Try that one on for size!

Glad to see I'm not alone.

jen aka mommay said...

wow, these LO's are beautiful! I've tried to do this "style" LO's but just haven't mastered it!

I'm so damn jealous. lol

distresseddiva said...

GREAT layouts! Love your style!

JenEverAfter said...

Those are neat! I've got photoshop (sorry, but I used to use it at work!) and have yet to experiment with scrapping stuff.

Clara said...

Awesome LOs... love the bright colours in the Mayhem one! I'm like you, the mess of paper scrapping was just too much to handle... it's digi-scrapping all the way for me too!

jaye said...

I love your layouts. The shot with the dinosaurs is awesome! I admire people who can crochet, tired learning.........let's just say I did as well as I did in cut and paste in school. Darn scissors are not made for lefties, LOL.

Cindy said...

Another crocheter here! And isn't digital scrapping fun?!

Anonymous said...

I so want to do more digital scrapbooking! Your pages are wonderful!

Jenni said...

Beautiful layouts! I wish I was more creative...

Unknown said...

I crochet also, did not learn until I was an adult though. Have not started doing much regular scrapbooking, so have not started the digiscrapping, but you have some great layouts.

Unknown said...

i know how to crochet scarves, blankets and anything else in a straight line!

as for DSBing, i LOVE it!

your pages are beautiful... creative and original.

Designing Hilary said...

Gorgeous digi-pages! I've been crocheting for years too ... or should I say for decades. I also just revisited cross-stitch last year and finally got the project done. ;)

Rachel said...

I love, love, love, those LOs!!!! Gorgeous!

Katie said...

Thanks for sharing your blog. Your lo look wonderful. They all have a great airy feel. Thank you!!

Deb@Mommie Mayhem said...

I love the layouts !! I use to do digital scrap booking. It became addictive lol !