Guest Blogger: Joanna Campbell Slan!!

Hey everyone! Super exciting day, I have a guest blogger! Author Joanna Campbell Slan has a new book releasing, and to help spread the word she'll be appear on a few blogs, so keep your eyes peeled. Now onto the fun....

Make sure you post a comment or question to this post and at the end of the day I'll randomly draw a winner to receive a FREE copy of her new book!! You dont want to miss out!

That's all from me, now here's Joanna....

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Miss Picky Rides Again.

I spent a couple of hours today making journaling boxes to hand out at ScrapFest 2008, the big scrapbooking convention hosted by Archivers up at Mall of America in Minneapolis. At first, I couldn’t decide what sort of design I wanted. Then I had a flash of inspiration. I used a variety of my rubber stamps (different sizes and fonts) to spell out ScrapFest. It’s not exactly like the ScrapFest logo, but it’s sure close. After I’d gotten the spacing just right, I drew on the lines. I had typed up lines on my computer, and I used those as guides so that I had the right width. Finally, I drew a border around the “box.” After all this, I scanned the box, pulled it up on PhotoShop, used the clone stamp and “perfected” the image. I cleaned up where my pen had slipped, and where the ink was a bit too thick.

Here’s a tip I learned today that could have made this easier. You know how hard it can be to get your wooden letter stamps positioned correctly? Use a marker and put a dot at the spot on the wood that marks right side up. That would have saved me, oh, a half an hour of stamping that stupid letter “C” upside down. (You’d think I would have figured it out after the second time, but NO, I was so “into” the spacing that I kept picking up that “C” and getting it all wonky on the paper.)

And who else but a truly tedious, picky person would use the clone tool to take a flourish off the letter “E” so the word was more readable? Hmmm? I plead, “Guilty.” Okay, I admit. Sometimes I take scrapbooking way too seriously. On the other hand, sometimes it's a great escape for me.

The other day, for example. While a friend was having a long, rambling rant, I made journaling boxes on my computer. I found really cute clip art, drew the lines, positioned the art, came up with snappy titles, and had a great time. (Okay, I felt a little bit guilty that she was stressed and I was having fun, but she felt better when she finished and I wasn’t hurting anybody was I?)

Folks ask me if my heroine in Paper, Scissors, Death is a lot like me.

Uh, yeah.

Kiki Lowenstein is a picky scrapbooker. She understands, though, that she’s a lot more, uh, demanding than most people. And she’s cool with that. As I've said for years, there are no scrapbooking police. No one is going to come to your door and tell you that you're doing it wrong.

That's just one of the many reasons I love it!

Joanna

P.S. If you’d like the file with my clip art journaling boxes, email me at savetales@aol.com Put ScrapFest in the subject line. I’ll get them to you some time next week.

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Joanna Campbell Slan is the author of Paper, Scissors, Death (ISBN 978-7387-1250-7) which features amateur sleuth and scrapbooking mom, Kiki Lowenstein. For more information go to www.joannaslan.com To read an excerpt www.youpublish.com/joannaslan

To order your copy—complete with a coupon for 50 Free Digital Prints—go to http://www.amazon.com/Paper-Scissors-Death-Lowenstein-Scrap-N-Craft/dp/0738712507/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1220378229&sr=8-1pattimar

Joanna Campbell Slan
Paper, Scissors, Death
Fall 2008, Midnight Ink
www.joannacampbellslan.com
http://killerhobbies.blogspot.com