My Malice Auction Offering

I'm not sure how well you can see this, but...this is the customized scrapbook page I created to have auctioned off at Malice this weekend. Inside the small album is room for 8 photos (4" x 6" size). The cover of the album is sewn with sequins sprinkled throughout. The papers were customized and colored just for this, and the "not everyone's cup of tea" paper was custom made. The upper right with its overlapping letters pays homage to Agatha Christie's many books. The three red drops of blood lower right are in homage to the Killer Hobbies blog in which I participate. The tea bag on the left has glitter "inside." Agatha's portrait was sewn on by hand. The name of my book--Paper, Scissors, Death--appears on the page. And the tea cup is the official emblem of Malice Domestic.

The Malice Domestic live auction benefits the John I. Gildner Regional Institute for Children and Adolescents, for the treatment of severely emotionally disturbed young people. The dollars raised each year supplements the budget for enrichment programs, such as fostering the enjoyment of reading.

I'm also offering to review three chapters of someone's manuscript.

Last week, the naming rights to a character in Book #3 of the Kiki Lowenstein Mystery Series fetched in excess of $500 (we think it was $750, but we can't confirm that yet) for the Guardian Angel group here in St. Louis.

Tweet, Tweet, Tweet--and You Could Win a Big Box of Books!

Argh. Every day I open my email and think: I don’t have time for all this. I especially don’t have time to update my website, to check all the posts on all the list-serves I belong to, visit every online community I need to, and comment on everyone’s blog as I should.

But I do have time to Twitter. Apparently, the rest of the world agrees. The site has reported an eight-fold rise in visitors since 2007, and in December reported 2.7 million people stopped by. At this rate, it is poised to overtake Facebook. It’s especially popular among the young and restless. One in five people between the ages of 18 and 35 with Internet access have “tweeted” or posted short messages of 140 characters on Twitter at least once.

Why do we twitter? Because we can. Because I can dash off a 140-character (that’s letters and symbols, not characters as in people who populate books!) post to update people on the release date of Cut, Crop & Die, the second book in the Kiki Lowenstein Scrap-N-Craft Mystery Series. (That’s June 1, so mark your calendars or go to Amazon.com and place your order.)

Because I can post regular journaling prompts to remind scrapbookers the world over to write about their own lives. (Check it out at twitter.com/joannaslan. If you are an author, the journaling prompts are great tools for overcoming writer’s block. Try them and you’ll see!)

Because I can follow my favorite authors, geeks, and newsmakers by hitting the FOLLOW button.

Because I can make a post to Twitter from a Blackberry. (Try doing that with a regular blog post. I mean, if you are young and have well-trained thumbs, you probably can handle this, but I can’t. Yet.)

Because Twitter will automatically take any regular URL and turn it into a tiny URL and post the link for me. Because I can quickly scan the posts and see what interests me. Shakespeare said, “Brevity is the soul of wit,” so I think he would have LOVED Twitter.

Because Twitter fits. I can squeeze it in.

Want to see how it works? Become one of my followers on Twitter and I’ll enter your name in a contest to win a Box of Books. Yep, I did find time to cull an entire box of mysteries from my bookshelves. (It's a honking big box!) So, add your name to my followers on Twitter by going to twitter.com/joannaslan, hitting, FOLLOW, and then EMAILING me at savetales@aol.com and telling me you are now following me. Be sure to tell me your “twitter” name so I can see that you did it! (No cheating!) I’ll choose one follower and mail him/her that box of books. For best results, share your postal address with me. Otherwise if I can't get a hold of you and get your address confirmed within a day or two, I'll choose another winner. (Life's too short to chase you down!)

Let’s see if this Tweeting works!

PS You can hear a live broadcast of a scrapbook crop at http://www.blogtalkradio.com/circle-of-seven/2009/02/14/readers-entertainment-radio-with-guest-joanna-slan-author-of-paper-scissors-death If you have NO idea what a “crop” is, or why women love them, this will be very, very enlightening!

De-Stress for the Holidays, Part IV

Note: Last year I asked my scrapbooking friends to tell me how they de-stress during the holidays. I received some AMAZING responses. Be sure to stop back at this blog on Dec. 23 for the final installment.--Joanna

Stress? Too much to do? You betcha! When things get crazy during the holiday season I remind myself of a couple of lessons I learned, one from my dad who died almost three years ago and one from my daughter, who was 12 at the time when she educated me.

From my Dad : In his last 5 yrs. of his life, dad was oxygen dependent, either tethered by clear tubing to his noisy machine at home or to a tank on a cart when he was out and about. He no longer drove which was a relief to my brother and I, but he missed his daily drives where he wandered the back roads to see if the deer were still hanging out in the patch of woods, if the builders had made much progress on that new house, how high the river was, etc. In his last years, most of his life was spent in the Lazy Boy recliner by the front window napping, staring at the TV, watching the comings and goings of the neighborhood, or listening to music on the radio. I visited Dad as often as I could, given that we lived 650 miles apart and I work full time, have two teens and a husband. During those visits I came to realize how very important it was to Dad any time someone waved, said "hi", came over with a plate of cookies fresh out of the oven, sent him something in the mail, visited him, etc. It didn't matter if they dropped off a container of chicken noodle soup (which by the way, he hated) or a container of mixed nuts that he loved. He was thrilled that someone thought of him and went to the effort to visit or call or write. It didn't matter if their was a gift involved, Dad just really enjoyed the surprise and the human contact. When I am stressing over figuring out or affording the perfect gift for someone, I flash back to Dad and I remind myself that the perfect gift is often times in me, not in the mall or a mega store.

From my Daughter: A few years ago on a mid December evening, my then 12-year-old daughter Angela was in the car with me as I drove home, my head full of thoughts about what was left to do before the big day. Angela asked me what i was thinking about and I told her that this was the time of year that I go a little nuts, worrying about disappointing her and her older sister. In an incredulous voice, Angela asked me how I could possibly disappoint them. I told her that I am not very organized and I start to worry that one of them will get way more gifts than the other or maybe one will get more fun things or I will have forgotten to get a gift that they really want or any of a number of things. Angela turned to me and said with wisdom that surprised me, "You know Mom, Christmas is about more than just getting presents. It's about having everyone over and playing with our cousins too".

So I can think Angela for reminding me that I am not the center of the universe and that the success or failure of Christmas does not rest on my shoulders. How uplifting to let go of that burden! I can thank both my Dad and Angela for pointing out to me and demonstrating that it is human kindness that counts, not how much money I spend or how many times I do the expected thing. When life gets too busy, I remind myself that it is the human touches, the warmth and the caring that matters, not whether I fashion a bread basket out of bread sticks, glaze it with egg whites and bake it until it is shiny and brown. When I feel overwhelmed and stressed, I figure out how much of the things going on really are important from Dad's and Angela's point of view, and let go of the rest.

Sue

De-Stress for the Holidays, Part III

Note: Last year I asked my scrapbooking friends to tell me how they deal with stress during the holidays. I received some amazing emails. So here's Part III in our series. Be sure to join this blog on Dec. 18 for Part IV, and Dec. 23 for Part V.--Joanna

I started scrapbooking about 10 yrs ago after my mother moved to Heaven, my sister to FL. My brother to WA and my daughter to Oregon. My son back to Oregon. I had to find some way to deal with the depression that I was having. Pills made me worse or too happy to deal with life.

So I started an album of loss. Just after my mother a dear friend died, then a policeman I had adopted after being stopped by him, (no ticket) but I waved each day and prayed for him as well.

I saw his bike and the accident on the side of the freeway. On my way home from work that day.

So this album helped me deal with loss and sadness. But in a positive way. That was only the beginning.

Now when I am overwhelmed which at the holidays who isn’t? I go sit in my wonderful scrapbooking room and create something. Be it a album for each of the grandsons, or a card for an upcoming event. Always a thank you card this time of year. Once I get going I can breath again and head back to the tasks at hand. Cleaning, baking, for a house full of people to soon be walking in the door. We are having only 10 this year on Christmas Eve. I tend to bake too much, cook too much, and fluff too much and love every minute of it. I send lots home with family. But I spend the day snapping pictures and will make not only my photo scrapbook, but one for each of the kids. Small ones they can carry around with them.

Stress is just a snip, scrap, and picture away from being gone. Life is good and scrapbooking is my life.

Connie

De-Stress for the Holidays, Part II

Note: This is Part II in a series of posts written by my scrapbooking friends on how they de-stress over the holidays. Be sure to check back on Dec. 15, 18 and 23 for more installments--Joanna

We are big outside light decorators. We have about 15,000 lights. So we enjoy also seeing other's displays. A nice way for us to de-stress is to do dinner out and take a drive looking for Christmas lights. Tonight we did just that and my Mom was with us. I was happy to see how much she enjoyed the other display and then we got back home to ours. This is our first Christmas without my Dad, he went to heaven in June. So she is spending the holidays with me and my sister, some time with both of us. As avid scrapbookers we need to remember to make memories not stress!

Mira

Winners

Here are the winners of the contest in the back of Paper, Scissors, Death:

* Stacy C. of Minnesota won the Grand Prize of a Scrapper’s Dream Vacation including dinner with me! (I promise to use my company manners, Stacey.)

* Debbie F. of Tennessee won the Second Prize, the Snapfish Premium Photo Album.

* Molly F. of Minnesota won the Third Prize, the Mrs. Grossman’s Sticker Pack.

And here are the winners of the Best of British Scrapbooking Contest 2008:

* Overall Winner is Kim Tomlinson

* Best New Talent Winners are Jane Knight and Sarah Bond
* Best of British Winners are Jo-Anne Cavanagh, Julie Kirk and Michelle Jackson-Mogford. Below is First Noel by Jo-Anne Cavanagh.

What's HOT Across the Pond

Whew. I finished judging “The Best of British Scrapbooking” a few minutes ago and sent my results to Rosie Waddicor, one of the editors. It was hard. Really hard. There were so many great entries, and I wanted to give out a lot more prizes than allowed. But enough of that.

Recently, someone forwarded an email to me from Debbie Macomber. Not only is Debbie a great read, she’s also a keen judge of the marketplace and emerging styles. Debbie noted, and I have reason to concur, that trends here in the US often start in the UK and work their way over. That’s particularly true of scrapbooking. So allow me to share some trends, and tell me if you think you’ve seen them, too.

1. 3 – D embellishments. Used to be, all scrapbook pages were flat. In this group of entries, I saw ribbons looped up and stapled down to stick up like roller coasters. One memorable page had “google” eyes on a cartoon character. Those are those bubbly eyes where the pupils roll around. Yep, texture is definitely jumping off the pages.

2. Going green. Contestants used a lot of corrugated cardboard, ripping off the top skin of paper to expose the ridges beneath. Also used were bubble wrap, plastic wrap, and slivers of a Coke can cut into the shape of petals. No doubt about it, scrapbookers are recycling on their pages.

3. Doodling. Doodling hasn’t quite caught on here like it has in the UK. Folks here are too restrained. There, scrapbookers take a pen to about anything and add colors with abandon. The result? There’s a sense of playfulness to the layouts.

4. Cartoon art. Anime stickers, cartoon characters, simple line art, every aspect of cartoons showed up. I particularly enjoyed where one contestant cut out a photo of her head and put it atop a cartoon body and paperdollish arms. We’ve gone from one extreme to the other. Once upon a time, scrapbookers used templates to cut photos into stars and what-not. Then no one cropped anything, and now we’re cropping body parts and combining them with paperdoll limbs. It’s really fun.

5. Paint on pages. Paint was used to alter a paper’s original color, to create a background so journaling would stand out, to customize patterns by adding color or design, and to simply add seemingly random funky circles to a plain pattern to jazz it up. Also big is painting on the REVERSE side of an acetate overlay. Say you have a clear overlay with flowers on it. You flip it over and fill in the flowers with paint. Let it dry and use it on your page.

6. Collage and simplicity. I saw both ends of the spectrum. Collage pages included fabric, plastic, charms, photos, fiber, ribbons, epoxy stickers, distressed paper, memorabilia, rubber stamped swirls, embroidery, stitching, ephemera, buttons, brads, and so on. But, a goodly number of layouts were spare, with simple combinations of paper, photo and journaling AND tons of undecorated space to create a refreshing change to the busy nature of collage.

7. Birds. Oh, golly. There were bluebirds, robins, owls, of every sort of paper, color, and pattern. Closely following were dragonflies and butterflies.

8. Acrylic overlays. One was even cut into a body silhouette, secured at the top with a brad, painted from the back and then used to cover hidden journaling. This is such fun, and folks are getting more adventuresome with their usage.

9. Negative space. Okay, if you punch out a form, the empty space that's left behind is negative space. More and more of it is showing up on pages, and the background that peeps through makes this a fun and interesting addition. Not to mention, it can be a thrifty use of your apres-punch leftovers.

10. Flowers. In leather, silk, paper, and plastic. In fact, one trend I could rather do without was too many flowers on pages where flowers did NOT match the theme of the page at all. You see, trends are great fun, BUT…just like in fashion, you have to be careful that you don’t sacrifice what “works” for what is trendy. Just because flowers are hot doesn’t mean you should use them to decorate a page about the Grand Canyon or road racing.

11. Colored buttons. These were used en masse to form lines, to add punch to other groupings, and to act as the center of flowers.

12. Journaling boxes. We call them "boxes" but they don't necessarily have borders on them. These included pages that looked ripped from notebooks, artsy edged boxes, and just rows of lines sticking out from brackets or parentheses. Not only do journaling boxes add style to a page, they also encourage you to write!

You can bet my heroine Kiki Lowenstein will be incorporating this cool ideas in her next adventure!

PS When the winners are announced in December, I'll share some of the names and layouts with you. Until then, mum's the word.