Article
The April / May issue of Scrapbook Retialer is out and I was lucky enough to be asked for an article about "Luring Men into scrapbooking." I posted it in pdf form
here if you want to read it. It's in print resolution ( about 1 meg ) so it will take a little bit to download if you don't have broadband. Maybe a good time to start it and go get some coffee...
part deux
Here's the pics from the rest of my Scrap Etc. experience. It was lots of fun, everyone treated me like a king. People opened up, were real and I didn't meet anyone with any diva attitudes. Wonderfdul! I accidentally dumped a couple pics so you're going to get a fragmented perspective.
First: Stacy Julian, finally got to talk with her, not just a quick snapshot in passing. I love that she and Paula are getting behind the conceptual value of scrapbooking. I undertand and am in the same boat.
Second: The mall. Saved my life. I had trouble sleeping thinking about work stuff and having a mall attached to the hotel gave me a place with trees and green to hide at 2:00 in the morning when being in another hotel room in a strange city with nowhere to go surrounded by strangers was not as fun as it used to be.
Third: The hummer with the pink flowers. Decadent, bold, beautiful. Enough said.
Fourth: The flight: Being in an airport concourse with a handful of gates and a departues sign that has 4 flights for the day then goes right on to tomorrow was different. Don't get me wrong, I LOVED that there was only one person in front of me in the security line. I loved that I walked out on the tarmak to get on the plane and loved the nice people! It just caught me off gaurd compared to JFK, LAX, Schiphol and BCIA.
Five: Kristina Contes' class: Fun, fun , fun. I finally got to meet her in person after seeing her face on the screen dozens and dozens of times and spending hours editing everything she said. I had the typical syndrome of meeting someone through a TV show, radio or magazine and feeling like you know them because you've logged in all this time but they haven't done the same with you so it's an imbalance. She was very cordial as well as everyone on the table that lent me their tools, time and techniques. Scrapbookers are consistently the nicest people I've met.
link me
So what am I doing here with a piece of green board ( printed circuit board ) and a tabletop lighter? Well, pictures can lie and I'm actually happy in this one. I'm happy because I've got some 273 emails to return from being gone over the weekend ( not including junk mail ) DVD's to send out and meetings to be had, speach to write for Thursday afternoon, sermon to write for Thursday morning and all forms of work related duties. I need to set this aside because I desperitely need to clean up / out my office area so we can put our house on the market in the next week or two. This isn't really interesting to anyone but me and my patient wife. The trick is that I started my cleaning with some podcasts like Joel O., KRCW's Martini shot, This American Life and PRI's The World: Technology. The ones I like the best are the personal stories of Hollywood screen writer Rob Long where he talks about his work and life. It hit me that what he's saying isn't news either... that's the point. I'm interested in his personal take on stuff. I reminded me that when I've been busy my blog has been ( sigh ) boring. This post isn't insightful into the world of scrapbooking, doesn't break industry news or bring you on location to the crop party bomb that erupted in Alabama last week. It's just me packing up computer parts and using an errand table lighter I grabbed to add some fill light for the picture. They're out because I'm a little sad about giving away many of my belongings to downsize and make life easier. It's a good thing.
That said, I'm still eager to post more pics and info on the Scrap Etc. event tonight / tomorrow, post a link to my friend Tony's google map spot in the bush of Queensland, Australia and show you pictures of some of the lofts Connie and I have been looking at to call our new home. I want advice and opinions. ;0)
I actually was making this post to say that links make the online world go around and I'm trying to boost my technorati ratings so it's a free for all now. Send me the address to your blog and I'll post it, hoping you'll do the same.
Rock On!
wes
Scrap Etc.
Spent the weekend in Birngham, Alabama. What a blast. I was invited to the second annual Scrap Etc. event there put on by Jeremiah and Monique McClean who also own the Scrap Etc. store.
Click Here to check it out!Amazing! They had me come in as a surprise and show Scrapped at a local theater as the opening night kick off. Renting a theater and showing the movie as part of the weekend events... how cool was that?! We got to see Scrapped on the big screen in a multiplex with stadium seating, popcorn and a pumping sound system. I was a very happy guy that night. The picture of the theater we screened in actually only shows 2/3 of the people because I snapped it while everyone was loading up on soda and raisinettes.
We hit the store afterwards and sold DVD's, gave away movie posters and I signed a bunch of movie tickets / took pictures for scrapbooks. I was very glad I had extra movie posters to hand out because it added to the cool factor. You can see the wall of currently playing movie posters in the theater pic above so it made Scrapped look ike... well like we knew what we were doing. ( shhh, don't tell anyone the truth. ) I'm certain it was as much fun for me to hear people's stories that came out from watching my experiences as it was for them to talk to me afterwards and share their thoughts.
Scrap Etc. ended up having a rave the second night. Amazing. They went all out with 4 work stations of make and takes, lights, smoke machines, food, displays, even an oxygen bar.
I'll post more pictures and info after I unpack and start checking emails. I met some cool people and have pics from a couple classes. Monique and Jeremiah really know how to go all out. I do want to say that being in the south again was the best. I had a Chick-Fila right by the hotel, drank sweet tea, loved the accents and the hospitality. What a great weekend.
Scrapbooking is much wilder and fun oriented than I ever could have imagined.
wes
Deutschland ist scrapbooking!
Und Nathelie ist ihre Königin. :0)
Poor Nathalie Kalbach has been waiting for weeks for an interview and it's been creeping down my list of urgent emergencies of extreme urgency to get to. Bless her heart, she patiently waited for me and now I've got a
wonderful interview with good questions in English AND German!
You're gotta love a language that gave us the terms and ideas like zeitgeist, bauhaus, uber and angst. Well, that and all the beer...
I stop by www.scrapbook-trends.com off and on because Nathalie don't just have creative layouts, she has a knack for taking fun pictures that drip with emotion. Very cool!
Thanks a million Nathalie!
Thrilla from Manila
Believe it or not Scrapped is having a Philippino premiere. Crazy huh?
I've been working with Angela from "My Scrap Works" in the Philippines who's part of a conference in two weeks called Scrap Meet 3. We've been talking for months about putting something together and sadly I'm going to be in Alabama showing Scrapped at the Scrap Etc. event.
Click Here for more Info. 
Here's a picture of Angela and the My Scrap Works family, a group of devoted scrapbookers who started the first website dedicated to Manila based scrappers. They're completely volunteer writers made up of working moms/wives with 9-5 jobs whose passion happens to be scrapbooking. Thier aim is to spread the word in thier country about the joys and rewards of the craft. Everything they do for the website is GRATIS, all done for the love of the craft.
Check out all the rich scrappy goodness happening in the southern hemisphere by going to the ScrapWorks
website. I like logging in to these guys off and on because the site, the styles, the picutres form another culture that scrapbooks... are all unique. You can also click
here for a link directly to their connection with the movie.
