I'm so excited, in case you haven't heard, my podcast, The Duchess of Sassytown, has been picked up by Spotify! And on Thursday morning I got the amazing news that iTunes has picked it up as well...To say I'm giddy is an understatement. OMG I I am so doing the happy dance.
Listen on Spotify Listen on iTunes
Now comes the reality of all this. I now have to start planning my weekly episodes... and it's not as easy as I thought it would be. On any given day I could talk about paper crafting, DIY and self care topics for hours.....hours... but you just don't do an insane long podcast... so it's going to be about 30 minutes... give or take a few spectacular moments. Then there's the topics, the weekly project, and a surprise guest or two.
Let's go back to the beginning....
Self Care Recipe....
Take a chill pill… yeah, well easier said than done. No wait a minute. You can make your own chill pills using magnesium which are non narcotic, safe to use, and yummy… and the recipe is on my blog.
Now comes the reality of all this. I now have to start planning my weekly episodes... and it's not as easy as I thought it would be. On any given day I could talk about paper crafting, DIY and self care topics for hours.....hours... but you just don't do an insane long podcast... so it's going to be about 30 minutes... give or take a few spectacular moments. Then there's the topics, the weekly project, and a surprise guest or two.
Let's go back to the beginning....
It has literally now been 15 years ago that I started paper crafting in earnest. Sometimes it feels like I just started yesterday, especially when I find myself at a creative block and I'm just sitting here staring at a piece of gorgeous patterned paper and have no clue what to do with it. Some of you are right at that place right now.... the beginning of your crafting journey. I will give you the piece of advice I wish someone had given me back then, DO NOT have any expectations of perfection. When I say that I mean that you not try to compare yourselves to the pictures and videos that you see on social media and other creative sites. I'm not saying don't take pride in your work, just to have realistic expectations on your first time out.
Exhibit A..... my very first scrapbook page....
.
Witness Exhibit A above. My very first page, I spent more than a few hours on this page. Way back when I hated my handwriting, so I typed out my journaling page on my Mac and printed it out. It wasn't until a few years later that I discovered a book by Heidi Swapp called 'Learn to Love Your Handwriting'.... that helped me add my own handwriting to my scrapbook pages.(That woman has been changing the way I paper craft for almost 15 years now.) Anyhow, I willy nilly cut my photos, and my sticker placement I though was perfect. The thing is, back then I was happy with it, until I opened a copy of Creating Keepsakes and looked at my pages and just wanted to pitch them. I was so disappointed in myself because my page didn't resemble anything like what was in the pages of Creating Keepsakes. I felt so frustrated and intimidated.
The thing is, it's YOUR memories, YOUR expression. When you start comparing yourselves to others, you lose sight of what you want to express. You lose you. When I started making cards and scrapbooking more, I was a total perfectionist. I wanted my pages to look exactly like Heidi Swapp's, like Becky Higgins', like Rhonna Farar's.... Pretty soon my pages were just pictures of mine, in the pages of my favorite designers.... there was nothing of my expression in them, except the photos.
Back then I used to believe that you could only use the SAME designer's paper throughout the whole layout, that you only had to scrapbook of 'certain' memories (birthday's, holidays, babies...). My whole philosophy on memory keeping is that I scrapbook life, the good, the bad, the embarrassing, the painful, the ugly, the amazing, the beautiful.... well you get the picture.
These are some of the layouts I've put together over the past couple of years. One is from when I had my heart surgery, the other was when my friends and I filmed a PSA for Joy House, a non-profit. The layout about my heart I did in the Becky Higgin's Project Life app for my iPhone, a digital scrapbooking tool of sorts. The Joy House layout I created using Heidi Swapp's StoryLine product, a quick, easy and stylish way to create scrapbook pages using just your pictures and small accent elements to tell your story.
I shudder when I see comments on bulletin board referring to a shared page that states 'Oh my, she must not know what a sticker sneeze is?' or 'Did her kid make that?'. That's just crafter bullying and I will not EVER tolerate snarky 'My style is so much better than yours' attitudes on papercrafting bulletin boards. In the Duchesses Creative Cafe I will expunge you without warning. We're not 11 and this is not Jr. High. We're grown ups and we certainly should know better. (Ok, getting off soapbox now.)
See... your scrapbook design doesn't have to fit the cookie cutter designs seen in Pinterest and other social media, and you can scrapbook about everything. Which brings me to my other major issue with the paper crafting community at large.... IT'S NOT JUST FOR MOMMY'S.... I am not a mother, nor will I ever be, following a very personal and painful journey of miscarriages, infertility and chronic health issues. Along this journey I was asked more times than I can count...'Do you have children? Why don't you scrap them?' and when responding no, I get the pity look. The pity look along with the accompanying snub that followed. Don't get me wrong, I have no beef with the mommy's and grandmother's that scrapbook, I do have a beef with those who snub and discriminate in the craft world because you aren't a mother. I even had one woman ask me why I scrapbooked in the first place if I am not a mother.... seriously, this happened. My response, I HAVE A LIFE! I live. Yes, that still happens to this day even though the scrapbooking community has evolved beyond the 'just for mothers' mentality. In my first five to six years of scrapbooking (2003-2008) I NEVER saw a featured scrapbooker or designer that was not a mother, with the exception of Tim Holtz. It was this type of exclusivity that I let hold me back from submitting my work to magazines and online groups and bulletin boards. I didn't feel like I fit in, or would ever fit into this world.
Now with the ever expanding world of Facebook Groups, and other media outlets, women, men, non-binary from all walks of life are showcasing their work. Exclusivity in any facet of our world of makers should not happen... it's the melding of lives, cultures, and individual personal experiences that enrich and beautify the world that we create in. One form of art enhances the other, inspires the other... and so on... In this journey of creativity I have pushed through barriers and now with the Duchess blog here and the Facebook group, I am creating a world where we all can feel included and accepted in the world of makers.
Self Care Recipe....
Take a chill pill… yeah, well easier said than done. No wait a minute. You can make your own chill pills using magnesium which are non narcotic, safe to use, and yummy… and the recipe is on my blog.
Magnesium
is known to be a stress and anxiety reducer along with helping promote bone
health, relieve symptoms of PMS, helps prevent kidney stones, and lowers the
risk of developing diabetes.
This
little yummy gummy is easy to make and store. Be careful, don’t take too many as magnesium has a laxative effect… in
other words, the great Amazon Sugar Free Gummy Bear incident… Yeah… gross… but it has to be said. You don’t
want to be popping these things like Pirate’s Booty…
As a
heads up here are the ingredients
Ingredients:
- 5 level tablespoons magnesium citrate
- 3 tablespoons organic gelatin powder*
- 1 cup lemon juice, freshly squeezed
- 1 tablespoon raw honey or organic maple syrup
- A pinch of salt
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