Sunday, February 19, 2012

The Ellen Porter Hall

Did you know there is an Ellen Porter Performing Arts Center? I have known this for maybe 10 years, ever since I first came across the idea of "Googling my name." The website for this performing arts center at Westmont College in Santa Barbara used to be one of the first things that came up. I always wondered what that place was like. I think from 2002 to 2011 we might have driven through Santa Barbara once or twice, never with time to drive up into the hills and find Westmont College. But this year, on our way back from Cayucos on Jan. 2, we did have the time. We snapped a few photos of me at the building, and on our way off the campus saw this sunset descending over the college's athletic field. It's an Ellen Porter sunset for sure.

My newest among favorite scrapbooking websites, Color Stories Inspiration, helped me get this together. So did this sketch from another favorite scrapbooking website, Page Maps.


The sketch I also used, with only three photos, for our quick trip to Refugio Beach we took before driving up to this college. (I don't have that layout scanned, at least not yet.) Even though I knew long beforehand that I would be using this sketch for both, it took "My Building" much longer to come together than "Refugio Beach." I wanted to use at least the small strip of ledger paper I have here, as it is very pretty with the mauve column dividers you see a hint of here. I also like the argyle pattern, which is on the reverse side of the column paper. But while I was able to mix pattern papers from two different lines on Refugio Beach, doing so from the same line was stumping me here.

CSI to the rescue! I could stick with the greys and purples of the ledger/arglye paper, but what if I somehow added pink, turquoise and red? And what if I "distressed" a page. (This background paper has what is known as a distressed look, that is it artificially shows signs of aging. I added to that by rubbing ink on the right corners and on the drywall tape on the left side). And what if I had stripes in straight and not-so-straight lines?And what if instead of just saying "Me at the Ellen Porter Performing Arts Center in Santa Barbara," I told you why I even decided to go there? (Of course you know I would tell you the story behind the photo without prompting from someone elses's website!)

And what if I used a 10-year-old scrapbooking product called Magic Mesh, like Fi Kenward, one of the CSI design team members had? Nope, I could not. Scrapbook products go in and out of style quickly, so generally once you use up any stash of a product you have, you can't get more. Such was the case with my supply of Magic Mesh. But what about drywall tape? I actually get to spend some time "chatting" with members of the design team on Fridays, and member Shaunery Wharton suggested drywall tape as a substitute.

So there you have it. Drywall tape inked red (the color of my departed Magic Mesh, and one of the necessary colors to qualify for the CSI challenge) on the left. The cute little bird I cut out of the ledger paper on the right, along with turquoise and pink hearts, the jewels and brads I pulled off the heart I had cut down to make the turquoise one fit (see my previous blog entry) and a purple flower with a pink button center. A much prettier page than I had before!

Friday, February 17, 2012

Some cards I made recently


Three times a year, I go crazy with card-making. What's driving my insanity? The Stamping Board at my all-time favorite scrapbooking website, Two Peas in a Bucket, presents a series of challenges to create cards using various techniques and supplies. (I normally spend far more time on the Scrapbooking board than the stamping board, but I like them both.) The stamping regulars are currently winding down Winterfest 2012, which was my inspiration for five new cards.
A challenge to use a background stamp in a new way, and another challenge to combine punches with stamping inspired this card, which I will be sending to Ana Hess as soon as her son is born! Because I have an aspiring star in my family (Don Porter), I have quite the collection of star stamps. This one has lots of stars on it, so if I want a starry background, I reach for it. I also have a star punch, so it was easy to add a few more stars to the card.

Two Peas stamping board also issues a bunch of challenges every October, and calls them Stamptoberfest. During Stamtoberfest 2011, we were challenged to "reverse" stamped images by stamping them on opposite sides of white tissue paper. I did that, but my angels never made it onto a new card at the time of Stamptoberfest. But, when a new reverse challenge, coupled with another challenge to use buttons and bows on a card, appeared on Winterfest 2012, I had a very major head start on my 2012 Christmas cards. Expect to see a card very similar to this if you're on my Christmas card list.

When Positive Impressions, a store specializing in stamps, was open in Riverside, I took several card-making classes there. In one of these, I was introduced to water pencils as a means to color stamped images. A challenge in Winterfest 2012, took me and my water pencils to a new level: use them to color the background of a card. And then I happened to notice a paint can I've had for about five years, since the 2006 Sandals Couple's Retreat in San Diego. Similar colors to these, with beach images. I decided that would make a nice card, especially since my beach-themed stamps are among my favorites. Since I have a bunch of family living in San Diego, including one whose work has called him away from home for awhile, I am pretty sure one of them will soon receive this card.

I actually made this bejeweled flowery heart a few years ago. A challenge to make a shaped card, and include a stamped image on the card, inspired me to pull the heart off the original card I had made, and glue it to some cardstock that I would then cut into the same shape. While this would have been a nice card for Don to give me, I was never crazy about the original. By the time I made this card, I knew that Don had already purchased a Valentine's Day card for this year. (Last year I made one I loved so much I asked him to "give" it to me.) So this card went back into a box of cards I may give away some day. But this one has already been revised again. I pulled off five of these purple jewels and three of these pink heart brads, then cut the middle out of this heart and put the little embellishments, and the new smaller heart with the turquoise back side, on a scrapbook page. (See above.)


This is the Valentine's Day card I actually gave Don this year. I would not normally make a pink card for him, but I liked the "60s" feel these colors gave off. I was inspired to use this pattern and color scheme by another website's challenge, Creative Keepsakes. I was inspired to use this particular card design by a challenge in the "Design Garden" section of Two Peas in a Bucket.
And if you look very carefully, you will see that each of these pink strips of paper has been texturized, one with honeycombs, one with flowers and one with lace. I think if I had to do this card over, I would just use the honeycomb texture. But one of Winterfest's challenges was to use a tool called "embossing folders" to create a card. My texturizing plates are the orginal embossing folders, although people with more money to blow on scrapbooking than I have are now using much more sophisticated folders that will press a much deeper and crisper image into their papers. The challenge requirements were to use three different embossing folders, so that's why my strips are all different. The Christmas card above uses a fourth embossing folder, musical notes. I am sure now that I am into these texture plates, we will see more of the musical note plate soon. And the honeycomb plate, as honeycombs are a "trend" in scrapbooking for 2012.

Sunday, February 5, 2012

I love traveling


This scrapbook page is about the fact that I love traveling. That's what this figurine belonging to Don's friend J.R. reminds me of, people a long time ago packing up and going on a road trip. I'll do that from time to time. I don't know when - or even if - I will make it all the way to St. Louis, Missouri, which is the city this reminded me of, since its something to market the city's baseball team. I have been to St. Louis before, but I don't remember. (Maybe several times, but all when we lived in Illinois, when I was five months to 22 months old.) I have been to Missouri twice that I do remember, but not to St. Louis either one of those times.

Traveling in 2012, at least before September, is complicated by a lack of funds. Don will get his first pension check in September, we have learned. And by that time, he should be underway with his second semester at Cal. Baptist University. Which seems to me would prevent him from making a long trip until semester break in December 2012.



But we can hope for short trips within California. We have already made one this year. We started out the year in Cayucos, a beach town on the central coast. That's what my parents wanted to do this year. Going back from that trip, we traveled mostly down Pacific Coast Highway until we reached Ventura. We visited Vandenberg Air Force Base, Refgugio Beach and the Ellen Porter Performing Arts Center at Westmont College. I say that we also saw the Ellen Porter sunset at Westmont College. We spent the night in Ventura at a charming yet very inexpensive motel, then explored its downtown along with the smaller towns of Oak Park, Ojai and Santa Paula. All fun!



And sometimes, we will find new things not very far away at all. This bridge is in the Santa Ana River, with one side crossing at the trail Don and I frequently hike on. But this picture is from the other side, in Riverside. We recently discovered our neighbor city's Martha McLean Park on Jurupa Avenue. It's a nice park, and if you hike all the way to its western edge, you will then be on Riverside's paved Santa Ana River Trail. Find a break in the fence that divides the trail from the river itself to hike down to the south bank of the river. If I were to go straight across the river, I am less than one mile from my own house, but this was a cool bit of travel itself.

Saturday, February 4, 2012

Social Christmas and why I'm sometimes on the A list

Yes, I have Christmas, not Superbowl Sunday, on the brain. I am a scrapbooker, and I like scrapbooking photos mostly in the order I took them. (Although this photo is a repeat of one I scrapbooked last week).

This scrapbook page is about the 14 Christmas parties I have attended over the last four years. Most of them are the same kinds of Christmas parties most people go to, I suppose. Work-related parties. Parties for my husband's work, and parties for church groups I belong to. These parties are all fun ways to end a year with people I have come to care about.

Well, that takes care of a dozen of the 14 parties, anyhow. The other two I have attended are a little more special. These are the parties put on by Bobby Ball Talent Agency. Bobby Ball is my husband's agent for Hollywood commercials.

For these, we drive to a nice party place in Los Angeles. We walk up to a security guard, tell him the right secret word, and go in. Once inside,we are surrounded by mostly young, mostly attractive, mostly well-dressed people who want to be stars. Some of them will be. The rest are just a blast to be with.

Scrapbooking Christmas in February

Christmas 2011 with Porters and Hesses

Ok, so it took me more than a day to get back to this. There were some cute pre-Christmas scrapbook pages I did with lace doilies that I thought about posting, but I never got around to it. However, this page is also posted on my friend Debbi's Color Stories Inspiration website. She reveals a new color scheme and creativity prompts every Friday afternoon. I had started this layout Friday morning, but realized as I thought about thought about what I might contribute to the Color Stories, that this layout had the right colors and had room for a few of the creativity prompts.

As one of my most faithful blog readers knows, this is part of my husband Don's family. We do the routine of back and forth between two families at Christmas, some years spending it at my parents, some years with his. With this family living more than two hours away, and mine living more than four hours away, it usually is a one or the other deal. It was supposed to have been the year we spent with my parents, but they encouraged us to visit my mother-in-law instead, as we would be seeing them on Dec. 29 when they rented a beach condo for New Years.

This year, Don talked his sister Nancy into hosting the family gathering. She even made most of the side dishes, and Kent had a collection of Hess wines. (We aren't sure how he's related to the winemaker.) We brought the turkey.

Hosting the family gathering is a big deal for Nancy. She normally prefers to do Christmas with just her husband Kent, children Sherman and Kristan and now, their families. But Kristan saw Don's side of it, that Christmas is more fun with grandmas, aunts and uncles. Both of her grandmas came, one each (Don and me) of her aunts and uncles. She also brought her boyfriend Jim.

There is a back story to this photo. Which is interesting, because "back story" is one of Color Stories' prompts on the jounaling side. I haven't really shared the back story with anyone who wasn't there at Christmas, and we all know it. But I know my faithful reader is going to ask "Where is Eddie?"

For those of you who don't know, Eddie is Kristan's 1-year-old son. (My faithful reader is my stepdaughter in Colorado, Kristan's cousin.) Eddie wasn't there, he was at his father's house. Kristan and Eddie (father and son share a name) were together for several years, long enough to create Little Eddie and celebrate his first birthday together. But now, for the rest of his parents' life, Little Eddie will be shuffled between them on holidays, or, when he grows up, will decide how to do that balancing act on his own. Good thing, at least for now, both parents live in the same small town.

My faithful reader may also wonder where her Uncle David was. He wasn't there either, and that's only because of a family feud. David lives in the same small town as the rest of them, but hasn't spoken directly to his sister and brother-in-law since shortly after Eddie was born. David had been renting a house at cheap family rates from Nancy and Kent for about nine years. When Kristan was pregnant, they advised David they wanted him to move out, so Kristan and the baby could live there. I'm not taking any sides on this, but David and Nancy don't see eye-to-eye on the decision.

My mother-in-law, however, is taking David's side. And she was definitely sad on Christmas Day that she could not spend more of it with David. She did see him at church, but that's all.

My faithful reader may also wonder where her cousin Sherman was. He is newlywed, and was spending the day with his wife's family. He did get to see his parents, sister and nephew earlier in the day. I am sure we were all happy for Sherman.

This year, Don will be spending Easter with his wife's family, for the first time in our marriage. My family has its weaknesses too -one of them making Christmas and Easter all about family - but family gatherings are less complicated at the Van Curen household and I'm looking forward to a holiday without so many complications.