Tired Titles

Do you ever get tired of seeing the same old titles for scrapbook pages? Personally, I'm worn out on the "*fill in the blank* Fun" titles. Water Fun, Summer Fun, Pool Fun, Beach Fun, Snow Fun. Though I've been known to use them, there are several "tired titles" out there. So what can we do to become more creative with our titles, so that we don't see the same things over and over again in the magazines?

1. Dig deeper. We can see that you were at the pool, and it was fun. Can you dig a little deeper for us? What was the thing that stands out to you, that you tell everyone when you show them the photos? Was it that your child loved playing with those silly foam "noodles"? Well, then let's get a little more creative:

- Wet Noodle
- Water Skipper
- Wet & Wacky

2. Use a song as inspirtation. How many wonderful songs can you think of that have key words in them that will go with your page theme? Summer, for example:

- Hot Fun in the Summertime
- Summertime, and the Livin' is Easy
- Summer Breeze (and the list goes on)

try this site (and many others) for song titles that inspire http://www.allbutforgottenoldies.net

3. Take inspiration from quotes, poems, and stories. I'm not saying you need the whole quote, poem, or story on your layout, and it doesn't even have to have anything to do with your layout. Just take a piece, any piece, that fits your layout's mood. Sometmies just hearing certain words put together can inspire.

- From Shel Silverstein's "Rain" ; Slishity-Slosh (great for rainy day, mud photos)
- I know you little, I love you lots - from Shel Silverstein's poem of the same name (great for new baby)

I hope this offers some ideas to help you gather inspiration for your next page title. Good luck in your title endeavors!

Lessons Learned

In going through a recent book publishing effort, I came to this realization: When you submit for publication, but don't get your layout picked up, it is not necessarily because they "didn't like it". What I noticed repeatedly happening in the choosing process was that layouts we DID like didn't make the cut due to things like, page space, too many of that particular theme already, maybe we'd seen too much of a particular paper line already, and so on. It was numerous things. But what I learned from that was; Don't let it discourage you. Keep submitting, and your work WILL get picked up. It just has to hit the right person at the right time for the right article/subject/book.

What an interesting industry this is!

Relief is a Completed Invitation

Several months ago, I got engaged. Since then, planning this cockamamy wedding has been one big disaster after another. I know, I know, every wedding is difficult to plan, but I'm telling you, this is a nightmare.

First, the place we decided to host the wedding sprung a new "agreement" on me that was not included in the contract I signed. And this "agreement" was so poorly written that it was left open to interpretation by the horrible woman who worked there as the event coordinator. So, long story short, she made it impossible for us to host the wedding there. And I moved on to Plan B with only 4 months left to plan this wedding, and no PLACE to have it.

Now, this meant also that I had to put everything on hold because I couldn't very well plan other things if I didn't even know where the wedding was going to be. (I'm talking, I didn't even know what state it would be in.)

In the meantime, our florist went out of business, two caterers backed out on me because of the awful woman at Place A, and our honeymoon destination got wiped out by a hurricaine.

So I plodded forward with this "special needs wedding" as it came to be called. I checked in on my Plan B. The gal I spoke to initially had left, and I had to speak to someone new. Turns out they changed the policy about weddings, and had decided, much to my dismay, that if we were to host the wedding ceremony there, we'd have to rent the ENTIRE hotel, all 78 rooms of it! I cried, right there on the phone.

Now what? I moved on to try to find a Plan C. Plan C materialized rather quickly, but when I got the initial contract from the place, it was written under the assumption that I was hosting the reception there as well. At $95 a head... I don't THINK so! So I made them aware of the changes I needed to have made, and they informed me that I no longer took priority because they weren't making as much money off me. So the contract would go out when they got around to it. At that point, I was only 112 days away from the Big Day. They put me off for another 3 weeks.

Last week, I called and cried to the contract lady that I only had 80 days, and that I couldn't plan anything else until I got the contract from them so that I knew for sure where my wedding would be. I also threw in that if I did not get a contract STAT, that I would take this as a sign, and consider myself UN-marriable and decide to live in sin for the rest of my life! (That seemed to get her attention)

I received the contract last week, and finally was able to get around to making my invitations (which, 6 months ago, I had plenty of time to do!). I recruited my future mother- and sister-in-law to help, and we completed the main part of the invitations this weekend. It's such a relief to have that done, and know that, after 6 months of frustration and not being able to plan anything, I am finally on the home stretch.

Thank God for small miracles!

Of Fish, Chipmunks, and Divas

I was so excited this past Friday to be leaving for Eugene, Oregon and a weekend-long retreat with my wonderful scrapbooking group, the ScrapDivas. I embarked on my merry 2 hour drive with a song in my heart, and layouts in my head. Little did I know what was to come.

I arrived at my retreat just in time to take a lunch break. Good thing. I wouldn't want to be too productive. Then I unpacked my stuff, and proceeded to "scrapper stare" for about an hour. Finally I got out some photos. More scrapper stare. This proceeded, without much progress, for about 4 more hours. Finally, I declared I was hungry, and set off with 3 other Divas to dinner at a fish house.

Dinner was good, but during my meal I got a strange scratchy feeling in my throat. Hmm. Seemed a bit strange, but I plodded blindly on. When our meal was finished, we returned to the retreat just in time for my massage. Whew. I wouldn't want to miss that!

During my massage, I started feeling funny. I peered through that tiny face hole thinking to myself, "My face feels funny." I determined it was due to the tiny face hole, and thought nothing more of it. When the masseur had me roll over, he was quite taken aback at my appearance, and asked if I was OK. I assured him I was fine, and had no idea what he was referring to.

So I finished up and proceeded, in my ultra-relaxed state, downstairs to inform the next massagee it was their turn. When I entered the room, all the other Divas seemed surprised by my appearance as well. In fact, several of them expressed concern and asked if I needed to see a doctor. Surely they were joking!

I reached up and patted at my face. My heavens! I was all puffy! What on earth had happened? I gladly took an antihystemine from one of the other Divas, and excused myself to my room. Well, when I glanced in the mirror, I was greeted with the reflection of a chipmunk! I burst out in laughter and could hardly control myself because I looked even sillier laughing than I had before.

All said, it took about 18 hours for my face to return to normal, and I got very little done at the retreat. But at least I got to hang with my Divas! And now... to figure out what exactly I am allergic to...

CK Hall of Fame Hopefuls Unite!

The road has been long, and riddled with excuses, but I have finally submitted an entry for the CK Hall of Fame. It has been since the very first HOF contest since I've entered. The industry has changed, heck, the RULES have changed. Has anyone seen that list of assignments and rules? Talk about intimidating. Not to mention the sheer pressure of it all. It's making me sweat just talking about it!

Sorting through the many innuendos, subtleties, and interpretations of said rules was probably the most difficult part. And people seemed to read way too much into those rules. My goodness. When they say no larger than 6"x6", that's pretty much what they mean. I don't think they meant exactly 6x6, but just not any larger. Don't read too much into it.

Now that I've waded through the muck of the rules and all the panicked and stressed out competitors' message board posts, I'm feeling confident that indeed, I've done my due dilligence, and I've sent my package off. Hopefully to the right address... Great! Now I'm stressed about that! Ha!