Ella Publishing and Big Picture Classes (and a giveaway)

Have you heard the news yet?

Ella Publishing Co., home of top-quality eBooks for scrapbookers and crafters, is now a part of the Big Picture Classes family! Even more exciting is the reunion of the visionary team that brought the world Simple Scrapbooks magazine (2002-2009). Stacy Julian, Angie Lucas, Wendy Smedley, and Cathy Zielske are back together under one umbrella—along with the other valued staff members of both companies.

You can read even more about this fabulous combination (like, chocolate and peanut butter fabulous) here.

And, you can sign up for Big Picture Classes Big Idea Festival, which is free (FREE!),with some more big announcements to come.

And finally, in honor of  this exciting occasion, I get to give away a spot in Tracy Clark's self paced workshop Picture Color. 

Through this 30-day photo-centric celebration, Picture Color will encourage you to turn your lens toward the colors that delight you most. With daily email prompts delivered right to your inbox, you will be greeted and inspired by a myriad of colorful shades to awaken your senses and your inner-artist as your camera clicks color after vibrant color!

To be entered, leave me a comment about what kind of classes you like to take.  And, if you like, you can follow me, and leave me another comment, for another chance to win. (If you already follow me, leave me two comments. Really, go ahead.) I will pick a winner on Sunday, September 16th.

And Now Back to Work...

Yep, all the Deutsches are just hours from being back to school and work. 

So, we're all done taking it slow for now. In fact, there's quite a lot to do already. 

Tomorrow, Max is starting high school. He will be going to school where Dave teaches. Yesterday, Dave confirmed that Max won't be in his class (which we all figured, but there was still a chance it could happen). Both of them had mixed feelings about this. Dave would have liked to have Max around, and to have the chance to lecture him about history in a setting where Max would have to listen. But, he knew it would make grading fairly impossible. Max knows that Dave is entertaining and a well-liked teacher (so he's heard through the grapevine), but, well, to a fourteen year old boy, having your father around at school is not priority. But, really, the fact that they both sort of want to be in the same class means that they generally like each other, and that is good.

A few weeks ago, I was wondering how this whole thing will play out over the next few years. Will this be the thing that Max swears he will never do to his own children, or something that he will always cherish about his childhood? My gut feeling is that most days will be fine, but there will be times when it will get ugly. I guess we'll just have to wait and see. 

As many scrapbookers do, as they ponder their family life, I scrapped  about it:

These last few weeks

I've been somewhat remiss at blogging, and at updating my galleries.

But, I have been hard at work at taking it slow. Rather than count down the days until we are all back at work and school, and trying to cram in as much as possible on my summer to do list, I've been taking my time with projects and errands and chores.  I'm still doing them. I'm just doing them more slowly.

And when I'm not doing projects and errands and chores, I have been working at not thinking about projects and errands and chores. I've just been enjoying the time, the people, being in the moment, and not trying to do so much. It's quite nice.

And I've been taking this fabulous class at Big Picture Classes, called Photo Challenges with Elizabeth Dillow.  (Registration is currently closed, but if it become available again, I recommend  it 100%) It's been helping me capture it all.

And, wait. I might even include a picture of myself. Can I do it?

Yes! I can!

There, that wasn't so bad.

Dave.

Dave will be the connecting theme of the following layouts.

See, first of all, remember that two week long road trip that spanned 7 states? Dave drove every second of it, and pretty much planned every minute of it. What did I do? Zip. Zero Zilch. Just like the layout says. (This layout, BTW, comes from a Cocoa Daisy sketch challenge.)

Now, this road trip consisted of lots of fun spots, and many historical ones too. Some examples include, Fort Donelson, The National Civil Rights Museum, and Gettysburg. The beauty of going to these places with someone like Dave, is that he knows everything.  It's very informative. (And this layout was done with the help of a sketch from The Studio Challenges.)

So, two layouts and three cheers for Dave!

I Played Around a Bit with Cards

Oh, this darling summer that is coming to a close...I worked really hard this summer at just keeping the creating going, even as my supplies dipped low, and inspiration was even lower. To help push past those low points, I played around with card making for  a few days. I didn't worry too much about the results, and I used up some scraps.

September is a season chock full of Jewish holidays, the first of which is Rosh Hashana, the Jewish new year. Thus, I made some New Year's cards:

I cannot believe how much easier it is to photograph cards than layouts!

Layouts to share

Here are two more layouts from our road trip that tell two different driving stories. Both of them make liberal use of Cocoa Daisy's August kit, as well as some items from older kits.

I'm sure everyone loves pictures of their kids sprawled out and passed out (not literally) in the back of the car. And the journaling here is short and sweet, about all the items that made those hours and hours and hours in the car more bearable: iPod, iPhone, PSP, GPS, and dramamine.

This one is based on a sketch from Cocoa Daisy. I did have to give props to the man who drove all those miles, and planned every activity in between. I did nothing really but help pack, and do laundry.

August Take Twelve Layout

Here she is:

When it comes to Take Twelve I've discovered that:
1) The photos always end up in some variation of a grid.
2) If I print my photos above 2 inches, I make a two page layout.
3) With so many photos, I usually use a solid colored, neutral, background paper.
4) I like to work with square photos.
5) I like my people photos most.
6) There is almost always a moment of discontent, when I first sit down to make my layout: How, oh how,  on earth can I fit 12 photos into one layout, without making it look like all my other Take Twelve layouts?
7) It usually works out in the end.

What patterns have you noticed in your Take Twelve projects?

Remember to link up your photos here, for a chance to win a spot in Elisha Snow's photography class over at Big Picture Classes.

Check out the rest of the Take Twelve team!

Elizabeth Dillow

Van Nguyen

Margie Scarpignato

Janette Kincaid

Monica Bradford

Jennie McGarvey

Lisa Day

Valerie Bishop

Amy Prior

Stephanie Medley-Rath

Angela Gutshall

Lisa Ottoson