Hillary Heidelberg's Blog

Sharing from my online class

Okay, so my February One-in-48 is nearing the end. For those of you who don't know about this class, I run it through my site nycscraps.com. Basically, I give a sketch and a prompt every 48 hours, and students are supposed to complete a layout in that period of time and post it, based on the sketch. It's fun, the community is supportive, and it's wonderful to see all the different sketch interpretations.

Sigh. I love these classes. The women are so very inspirational: their stories, their photos, and their just plain ol' scrapping-because-I-love-it attitude. I hope to share some more over the coming days...here's just a few that I love:

Yggdrasil's layouts always captivate me. Here she really recreated the "wave" in the sketch beautifully, and if my eye is right, she also matted it! Wow!

 

This one is just plain pretty. Tina captured that light, girly feeling in her layout with it's airy bubbles and pretty pink flowered paper. Great job, Tina:

 

 

 

Larken's Nanny posted this wonderful layout. Notice all the memorable detail her photos capture. This is a layout truly full of memories.

Check out this layout from JodeG. Man, i find it hard to scrap Christmas photos, so this one is very inspiring to me:

 

One by g-grammy--as a mother to boys, I don't get to use a lot of pink sparkly stuff on my layouts, so it's fun to see someone use it with gusto. Love it!:

Here's one by Amberhelga. I love the way she interpreted the sketch and made it her own:

One-in-48 Sketch Challenge Class starts tomorrow!!!!

Come on over and join in the fun!!!!! Click here to learn more!

Posting some photos of Luca (and Julian, and Luca's friend L) homeschooling...in the first shot  Luca and his friend L answering questions for a mini math quiz I gave them...then we have Luca making clay to make his cuneiform tablet...it says "LUCA" in cuneiform and we plan on hanging it on his door...the bottom shot is we have Luca and Julian as the kings of Upper and Lower Egypt (Luca of course was King Narmer of Upper Egypt--he "won" the battle with the king of Lower Egypyt).....

Have I mentioned I love homeschooling?

Finally the pic.....

Here's the pic I promised a few days ago.....the advance copy of my upcoming book Scrap Simple.... it arrived from Memory Makers Books and it looks really good! Okay, the pic is a little blurry...sorry...really the pics in the book are better. But the colors are perfect, the text looks so clean and sharp...my editors Amy and Christine really did a wonderful job (thanks girls).

Just got back from Long Island--we decided to go out there so as to avoid the Thanksgiving weekend rush, and it was so pretty-the fall leaves were the most perfect color.  Plus, Scoop had an UNBELIEVABLE sale...got some AG jeans reduced from $220 to $39 dollars! even though I have to get them shortened to fit my stumpy legs, they're still going to be a bargain in the end...Luca wanted to buy a t-shirt, but unfortunately his $5 allowance didn't cover the cost of the $345 DOLLAR KID'S TEE SHIRT.....oh wait, it was on sale. For $220. For a kid's t-shirt. Who BUYS this stuff???

I also am rededicating myself to getting in shape. I've decided that I need a class to attend so that I feel more "compelled' to exercise, so I'm resuming yoga. At one point, I practiced astanga yoga 5 times a week or more, and I was seriously CUT. Now, not so much. Anyway, I went to a 2 hour class out in sag Harbour on Saturday, and then today, went to a class at Jivamukti Yoga near Union Square. It feels SO GOOD to practice again. It feels like heaven. Heaven. I am going to try and get to class 3-4 times a week, so I will post again in a few weeks and let you know whether I'm still at it. I have a feeling i will be. I just have to remember this feeling and how good it is.

Sharing some pics of our lovely weekend....

What a great day....

You know when you have one of those great days? They don't come along that often, but everything seems to 'click' (sorta like Murphy's law in reverse)? Today was one of those days....met some other Manhattan and NYC homeschoolers at a weekly soccer get-together near our house, and Luca found a wonderful playmate named A***, the sweetest little girl who totally "got" his sense of humor and style of play (LOVE when that happens). Then we picked up Julian at nursery and got a scoop of icecream for each of them, and headed up to a playdate where the kids we were meeting were just getting out of their car (usually we're way late for things, or way early, so this was a nice change)..and Luca had more fun hanging with some of his long time friends while I got to catch up with two of my mom friends. Then we headed home and the boys are so wiped that they're already in bed (and it's 7 pm here...which means time to scrap and time to watch t.v.....life is good...)

I also completed a couple of layouts for Die Cuts with A View; two I can't share as they're for publication, but I made this one of Julian's summer birthday party in Long Island:

All DCWV except the orange alpha stickers, which are Doodlebug, and the buttons.

In other GREAT news, the fabulous Debbie Hodge, a contributing editor at Memory Makers Magazine,  has agreed to teach a class for NYCscraps.com....it will start October 15th, and it will be fantastic!!! I will be posting more information on the class over at the main site shortly, but for now only newsletter subscribers can register, and it's filling up! Debbie even prepared a sample class pdf, which I will make available for download when I post the info about the class. The class will be all about scrapping EVENTS...you know, birthdays, holidays, parades, parties and will feature primarily 2 page sketches....It will be a blast. Seriously.

Tomorrow we head out to Long Island for a long weekend, and then NEXT weekend is my little baby brother's wedding in Georgia!! The boys will be in the wedding, so let's just pray they're well rested :) Have a great few days everyone!

It's a big day in the Heidelberg family

Luca has finally begun swimming, sans 'floatie'....he went from requiring his floatie to simply dip his feet in the pool, to jumping in from the side and swimming across the pool, practically overnight. And what's even cooler is that Julian is swimming now too...if you've ever seen a barely-2 year old child swim, it's pretty amazing. He basically holds his breath and kinda vaguely paddles under water while blowing bubbles. Okay, so it's not quite swimming, but once he gets the paddling down, he'll be home free. I bought them both some swim goggles since after their 4 hour  pool session yesterday, they both emerged with blood red eyes from all the chlorine.

I've opened up registration for the One-in-48 Sketch Challenge Class which begins on September 10th. We have some brand new sketches lined up, and guest designers including Debbie Hodge, Paula Gilarde, Sara Dickey, Deanna Kroll, Lori Mar, Nicole Stark, Nichole Pereira and Lisa Tutman-Oglesby..all fabulous scrapbookers for sure who will definitely be providing some super-inspirational eye candy. I have to say. the One-in-48 Sketch classes are probably my favorite of all the classes I teach over at NYCScraps.com simply because the energy and enthusiasm (and sheer PRODUCTivITY) of the students is so contagious. The friendly environment (as well as the infamous MPL-Master Points List-is very motivational! If you're in need of a creative push, definitely consider signing up for the class.

I was asked a while back to name my 10 favorite scrap supplies..here are some I simply can't live without (not listed in any particular order):

1. Xyron Adhesive Eraser-critical for removing the stray bits of adhesive that inevitably cling to my finished layout.
2. American Crafts Alphabet Rubons-the fonts are superb, the quality of rubon is outstanding, and I find I want to use them on virtually every single layout.
3. Scrapbook Adhesives Tape Runner-absolutely, hands down, the best tape runner out there. Lasts a long time and is sticky but not TOO sticky. Because I'm the kind of scrapper who finds she needs to move things after adhering them, stickier options didn't work for me.
4. Doodlebug Rubon Transfer Tool-I use it every time I scrap.
5. Xyron machines-the 150, 250, 500 and even the 900. I am lucky enough to have been sent the 900 by the company when I did some work for HSN for them, but the others I already owned, and LOVED. Your product will never fall off your page again.
6. The Curvy Cutter: I love my CM circle cutter, but the Curvy Cutter allows you to cut circles up to 12 inches: perfect for creating extra large circles for your layouts.
7. Xyron Wishblade: This machine is definitely worth the investment. It works like a printer, except instead of printing fonts, it CUTS them...yes, any font, and dingbat font that you can find online. Pretty nifty, ay?
8. Photoshop CS: I upgraded from the perfectly adequate Elements about 5 months ago, and I really appreciate the difference. I am one who absolutely loves using her computer when she scrapbooks, from formatting text, to removing shadows from pictures, to creating photo collages, so CS was an excellent addition to my scrapbooking arsenal.
9. Wide Format Printer: For printing on 12x12 paper, a must. It's pricey, but I use it all the time and I love it. I have the Canon i9900 which I bought about 2 years ago for around 400 dollars, if I remember correctly. Because I resize my photos and only figure out what it is I want to scrap late at night, I tend to print them at home, so the convenience is a big plus.
10. Canon Rebel: I know, I know, everyone 'raves' about the Rebel. But I have to say, having upgraded from a middle-range point and shoot Canon, the difference in your photographs is simply wonderful. I was lucky in that I 'inherited' mine from my husband, who uses them in his art restoration work--he was upgrading and gave me his 'old' one. Perfect for me!!!

I've received a couple of emails from people asking if I am now permanently residing on "the dark side" (ie. digital ) side of scrapbooking....and the answer is that I don't think I could ever give up my paper scrapping--there's something about physically cutting and adhering paper that I just love. That said, I am happy that I am learning something new!  Speaking of digital.....

What a weekend...

...Saturday was Julian's 2nd birthday, so we spent the day at Victorian Gardens in Central Park. Basically, it's an amusement park right smack in the middle of NYC. They have carousels and mini-rollercoasters and all sorts of fun rides for the kids. Julian and Luca had a fantastic time.. We're going to "officially" have a party next weekend when we go out to East Hampton to visit my mom. My sister and brother will be there, and my future sister-in-law Mimi too (who is basically a sister already, since she and my brother have been dating for about 40 years).

(Reminder (ahem, Mom...) to double-click on the images to get a bigger, clearer picture) You might think Julian looks a little stunned...scared?..in these photos but the reality is that every time we got off he screamed to go back on, as is evidenced by the last photo, when after 5 rides on the slide we told Julian it was time to stop. Poor sad boy.... And in a couple of these shots I have to admit, Michael looks a bit crazy but really that's just his special way of expressing himself :)

Also spent a bit of timeworking on some layouts for the fabulous Scrapbook Sussies kit club. Lara runs a wonderful team of women over there, and she has a wonderful eye for mixing patterned papers. She asked me to be their first guest designer and I hope I do justice to the July kit! Hope to post my layouts here tomorrow :)

Michael is travelling in London again for a couple of days, so it's just me and the boys for now. Need to sneak in some time to give feedback to my students in Dig Deep: Journaling from the Heart over at nycscraps.com  I have been hard at work revamping the site over there to make it more user friendly--there's a lot more I need to do, but if you have a minute, zip over there and tell me what you think.  Have a great Monday, everyone!!!

Working the WRMK...

I have to say, I received another box of goodies from WRMK a couple of weeks ago, but I hadn't had the time to play with the kickass product until last night. The Coppered Out line of embellies and paper is very, very cool.....Double click for a clearer image.....
I actually made this layout for my current class over at nycscraps.com (it's an online class, so wherever you're located, you can participate--we've had people from all over the world participate). I am teaching a bit about using brushes in Elements, and downloaded this pretty one from designfruit.com...for free (gotta love that.)

Proud mom alert.... Luca was in his "big boys" TKD class today and at the end, the teacher has a playful opportunity for each student to try for "first place" in that day's class. Luca was by far the youngest in the class, and we'd already talked about how "having fun" is the most important part of the class...personally, I'm just glad he's not crying that he's the smallest. Anyway, Luca comes bounding out of class with a grin plastered on his face and announces to me "I got first place!" He was proud of himself, but not too proud (you know what I mean, right? I mean, nobody wants their kids to be like "I'm the be-est...." and all boast-y and stuff)...he pretty much forgot about it right away, too, which is funny. When Michael came home this evening I prompted him to tell Papa about his "exciting" day in TKD and he looked at me and said "what? what happened?" Hehe. Guess it didn't go to his head. At all.

In the New York Times yesterday, there was a front page article in the Metro section about a phenomenon called "freeganism". What's freeganism you ask?  Well, basically, it's a philosophy of living that promotes using the least amount of "stuff" possible. Freegans, as they're called, actually try to acquire most of their belongings by digging through trash. Sounds a bit gross, but in all honesty, NYC-ers throw out a HUGE amount of perfectly good stuff. Like when they move, and craigslisting the stuff didn't work, and they don't want to lug it to their new apartment..into the trash it goes. Anyway, long story short, I knew the guy who is basically the "leader" of the freegan movement over at freegan.info -his name is Adam, and I met him waaay back in a former life when I was a big-time animal rights activist. Even among AR activist, he was a bit fringe (which is saying a whole HELL of a lot, if you think about it..) He was always trying to get us pumped up about bug rights. Even I couldn't muster much enthusiasm for that. Anyway, I dug up a couple of photos at me at some animal rights rallies 15 years ago so you see I really was a freak (kidding--it was a big part of my life for many many years...) I'm including some helpful pink arrows in case you can't pick me out :)

The first one is a shot of me at a lockdown at a fur store in Manhattan, and the second is me at a rally at NYU. Ah, that's gotta have been a proud moment for my parents, dontcha think? Seriously though, I think if my kids were that passionate about something, I might be proud of them, even if I disagreed. Right? A lot of good did come out of it, in truth. I learned a lot about myself, met some amazing people..definitely a 'growing' period in my life .....

Anyway, off to create some layouts for Scrap Room The kit this month is really, really great...some Love, Elsie stuff, some MM krafty goodness, and the fantastic MME Bohemian line...Wheee!

Just freaked myself out....

....you know those all too brief moments in life where you feel "I am SO organized right now"? They don't happen often, unless you're Martha, and for me, they probably strike once a year. So anyway, I got that feeling like a week ago...maybe it wasn't a full-on "I-am-so-organized-I-invite-all-my-guests-
to-look-in-my-closets-and-oohh-and-aaah" kind of organized, but it was pretty good.

And yet, it was ALL A LIE!!! I get an email yesterday from a wonderful editor at Memory Makers (hi Holly!) oh so kindly asking where in the heck my layout was for them....and I am thinking "wait a minute here, my handy-dandy-online-calendar-that-emails-me-alerts-for-upcoming-events" never notified me of this....and so I go look at my handy-dandy-online-calendar. And see, those things don't work if you ENTER THE DATE WRONG!!! Yes, that's what I did. I had the due date as next week. Mind you, the right DAY of the week. But the wrong week. Not helpful at all, this human error stuff. So anyway, I worked on a layout last night (even though Holly kindly said I could take til Friday) and emailed it to Holly, utterly humiliated that my sense of feeling so very organized could pass so very quickly.

So, then, I start running through my calender wondering what ELSE I've put in there wrong. Other deadlines? Family member birthdays? My son's birthday?? (Yes, I rely on my calender for everything, and I mean everything..) Luckily, everything seems correct. But I did realize that my upcoming classes at GASC in Grand Rapids, MI (The Great American Scrapbooking Convention for you non-scrappers (hi Dad!) who read this blog) are approaching WAAAAY too fast. The dates of the show are July 27-28 and it hits me as I look at my calendar that that is like, um....just over a month away!!! Cripes, I need to get cracking on that. And you know, the worst thing about living in Manhattan is that there is simply NOWHere to get scrap supplies. Not Duck, not a trimmer blade, nothing. So I need to actually be organized in getting the supplies I need ordered for the classes. The classes, by the way, WILL rock, despite my seeming disorganization. I will be teaching a very cool mini-box album class called Say What?? using these Maya Road boxes I have a few in my possesion already, and let me tell you, they sit in your hand so nicely--does that sound weird? They're just so damn CUTE. I will also be teaching a journaling class, and a sketch based class called Kick it Up a Notch: Making a Sketch-based Layout Your Own.....if you're going to be there, be sure to find me and say hi!

What else, what else....oh yes, so did anyone watch Supernanny the other night? I did (of course, since AI is over, I must fill my brain with more trash) and seriously? What was up with that husband? The mom is pregnant with her 4th, dealing with 3 rowdy kids (one ADHD) all day, and when he comes home from work he goes into the bedroom to "chill out" for an hour? Um.....hello?? What about your exhausted, stressed, pregnant wife? He didn't even say hi to the kids, just ducked into the room like a covert ops man. And you know what Michael says to me? "An hour doesn't seem that long for him to relax." Um, come again? (Yes, I whacked him.) The husband is a letter carrier for Pete's sake!!! Don't try telling me that's more stressful than staying home with 3 kids.....anyway, of course by the end, hubby had changed his ways (the t.v. hubby, that is) and all was happy in TV Land. Very realistic.

Alright, I'm off for now to fine-tune my handout for Computer Techniques for Paper Scrappers over at nycscraps.com...if you're not on the mailing list...get on it now!

Computer Techniques for Paper Scrappers class begins tomorrow!!!

I am so psyched. I've taught a bunch of One-in-48 classes over at NYCscraps.com, but this will be the first computer technique-y one. There's still time to sign up, so if you're interested in joining in, please let me know :)

I spent the day today doing some major spring cleaning in the house. I know I'm a little late on that. I also swung by Kmart to get some potentially alterable items from Martha Stewart's line of home decor stuff. Ended up getting some small candles and a cute plate...Will post when I can!

Happy to share one of my layouts that appeared in June Memory Makers! Hope you like it :) And sorry about the crappy scan...don't know what happened there.
 

June classes are open for registration...

Woohoo!! If you're interested in learning more, just visit NYC Scraps Online Classes  and click on the Classes link at the bottom....These classes are really fun and productive and I've met some truly great women in these classes, so I hope you join us!