Ethnic Scrapbooking

Heritage Event in Maryland

Harbor Scrapbooking is hosting a Heritage Theme Crop on July 12, 2009 from 10:00 a.m. – 8:00 p.m. at the Annapolis Elk’s Club in Edgewater, MD.
 
There is still space left for this all day crop with mini seminars about Heritage scrapbooking.

You do not have to be working on a heritage scrapbook to attend this crop.   However, by attending you can learn interesting information and references to use in the future, when you are working on a heritage album. The crop is open to anyone who wants to spend time scrapbooking, taking classes, or attending the mini seminars. 

Heritage layout by Janet Johnson

Attendees will have access to all of the mini seminars, classes, shopping with vendors, use of Harbor Scrapbooking scanning and printing services, and will receive a Heritage Resource folder containing presentation slides, a CD, and other heritage related information).

There are three registration options available:

• Crop space, two meals, and goodie bag – $50.00
• One meal and goodie bag – $20.00
• Goodie bag – $10.00

This Family Heritage Theme Crop also offers one-on-one consultations with a Genealogist and heritage-style page layout classes.

Speaker topics include:
 
"You Are the Window to Your Family's Past"

Lisa Sanford, Author of the book Ethnic Scrapbooking, will explore why we as scrapbookers must gather and document our family heritage. She will also discuss how to bring your family together while investigating the past.

Other experts will be on hand sharing their tips on genealogy.

Summer in full bloom

Photo of blooms in my front yard.

Our summer has been full of excitement thus far...how about yours?

July 3rd - Emancipation Day in St. Croix

I wish we were back in St. Croix today to celebrate.  We heard about this day of celebration when we visited a local Jr. High School.

Article Excerpt by Bill Kossler

July 3 is Emancipation Day in the Virgin Islands, marking the day in 1848 when St. Croix's African population rose up to break the bonds and shackles of chattel slavery some 19 years before Abraham Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation in the United States. St. Croix will be hosting a series of celebrations, conversations and commemorations leading up to the day, with Fourth of July celebrations the next day.
  The celebration is organized every year by the History, Culture and Tradition Foundation, led by Mary L. Moorhead of Frederiksted.
  Emancipation was brought about by the St. Croix slave rebellion of 1848. That revolt was lead by Moses "Gen. Buddhoe" Gottlieb, an enslaved African and master sugar boiler who could travel from plantation to plantation.

Mickens Family in the heart of Fredericksted June 2009

 Buddhoe could read and write and was knowledgeable in world affairs. That same year revolutions swept across much of Europe, and Buddhoe may have considered himself a part of that widespread movement.
 Prompted by the takeover of Fort Frederik, the military stronghold in St. Croix, and threats by the enslaved Africans to "burn down the town of Frederiksted," Gov. General Peter Von Scholten reluctantly made the proclamation "from this day onward all unfree in the Danish West Indies are free."

 The events of July 3, 1848, ushered in a new era between the black working class and the Danish crown. The proclamation freed not only the blacks in Frederiksted, which was the capital of the Danish West Indies, but also the nearly 3,000 enslaved Africans throughout the entire Danish West Indies, including St. Thomas and St. John. Though slavery was abolished, the movements of workers remained tightly controlled, leading to the Fireburn revolt thirty years later, in 1878.
  To mark Emancipation Day, every year there is a donkey race, a fun pastime on St. Croix that goes way back into colonial times.
  "Everyone loves the donkey race," Moorhead said Wednesday. "It's funny, and like a big country picnic. You can't help but be happy and smiling at a donkey race."
  There is also a long walk from Christiansted to Frederiksted.
  "It's a very spiritual event," Sen. Terrence "Positive" Nelson said Thursday, encouraging everyone to join in. "We go slow and if you get tired, you can hop on the bus following the walk and ride." 
  Source:  http://www.onepaper.com/stcroixvi/?v=d&i=&s=News:Local&p=1212899458

St. Croix Vacation Album

Although our family has taken week long vacations before, I've never scrapbooked the whole week, amazing I know.  I've scrapbooked whole albums on just one day events, but never a week long event for my personal scrapbook collection.

Here's my game plan:  (I'm making this public so you can hold me accountable)

1. download and tag all photos - DONE!
2. dowload and tag all of my sister's photos  - DONE!
3. delete bad shots and duplicates
4. Revisit Stacy Julian's ideas in Photo Freedom (I highly recommend purchasing this great reference book) 
5. organize photos by day - select 8-10 to print/use (order two sets, use 2nd set for Kids,Parent's & Hostess album)
6. Create photo album or traditional album - hard choice for me, uploading to a photoalbum seems very appealing and quick, but I love to customize using my own stash.
7. Kids Pages - let them do their own two-page spread or mini-albums?
8. Parents Keepsake - give them the prints in photo sleeve album or what?
9. Cousin Tina (our hostess) - Create Thank You gift - traditional mini-album or loose print...decided, have Lisa Renee Young create a blank beach-themed mini-album
10. Deadline - Complete by September 1, 2009

Leave a note or additional ideas in the comments section on what you think about my plan.

Family Historian at work.

Family Reunion Mode

Back from vacation in St. Croix, VI where 20 of us relaxed and enjoyed a week long family reunion without any major incidents i.e. arguments.  I can't wait to do it again. (check out my Facebook photoalbum for some photos) Now I am in full family historian, geneaology, heritage preservation mode.

Pop on over to an article about my parenting style and how I TRY to relate to our ancestors.CLICK HERE

Then check out how I reunited with an old friend through Facebook.

See a new photograph of an ancestor I found while in St. Croix by clicking here

Beach # 4 of 4!  We had an absolute blast!

Scrapbook Studio

My scrapbook studio or scrapbook room, whatever you want to call it, got a mention in Michelle Vocke's column on June 15, 2009.  See my book website for more info.  I'll also continue to update this photo album.  Let me know whatcha think!

Creating neew business ideas with Senegalese business owner, Ebrahima Ba.  Owner of Hotel Le Palal.

PAPER CRAFT EXAMINER

My book, Ethnic Sccrapbooking just received a glowing review by Paper Craft Examiner, Michelle Vocke.  As Seth Godin would say...develop conversation about your product, don't just try to sell your product.  In other words, people will buy just to see what all the "hub bub" is all about. 

Shameless plug...the book is really more about life and perspective more than scrapbooking...the scrapbook pages are just the illustrations.

Paper Craft (apple stamped blank notecards) by 8 year old G.Angulo

ME Album - Gardening

Here's another installment on my ME album for 2009.

Paper is WILD ASPARAGUS...quite fitting for my theme.  3-d items are from Jolee's, of course...black letters are Thickers, my new favorite.

While I was finishing up this page, my son asked me if he could make a popsicle photoframe. Me being one to foster creativity was thrilled at his request.  As I was getting him all set up across from the table from me, I shook a bottle of glue and when I removed the cap a squirt of liquid shot across the room and landed right on my photograph...no where else...right on the photograph.  I gasped (cursed and screamed) and Jonathan said, "It's okay...it looks like rain."  So there you go I converted a mishap into a page embellishment.  I added some diamond glaze to each spot to give it diminsion is IT'S OKAY as Ali Edwards would say.

ME album

For the past three-four years I have been trying to do some sort of album about myself.  I have this love affair with trying to gain any glimpses into the daily life of my female ancestors.  What was like for Grandma Josephine (whom I wrote about in Chicken Soup for the Scrapbooker's Soul) to raise 7 children on her own, for Grandma Jo to bear and raise 13 children...both of them without the modern conveniences of microwaves, washers and dryers, cars, and etc.

Last year I didn't get around to doing one, but I had planned to do an A-Z album, so a couple of weeks ago, I finally got all the right ink cartridges for my new Epson Artisan 800 so I printed out a handful of 8x10 photos of me. 

My inspiration for using self portraits comes from "E" she is single, no kids so she scrapbooks about herself...she takes a ton of very interesting self-portraits and I think about her everytime I take a photo of my self or hand the camera over to one of my kids.

Two other sources of inspiration:

One, the pose in the photo is similar to something I saw Ms. Ali Edwards do on her blog. Two, Highlighting the words Attitude & Gratitude comes from Oprah.

Respect

R-E-S-P-E-C-T the word of the year for my house.  At every opportunity, I'm trying to evoke a deeper understanding of what the word respect means to my kids.  Last week I was trying to take it easy with my time and find more BALANCE in my life (last year's word of the year).  Sierra was begging to go outside and just BE, so my heart gave in and here's the result.

Yes, another scrapbook canvas (size 8x10) to serve as a reminder and reinforce my teachings.  My goal is to do the Ten Commandments too.  What does this have to do with outside...I grabbed my supplies and created outside!  The kids came home and said, "Hey, are you trying to get people who walk by to do art?...No, silly, mommy just needs to do art!" I replied.