Fun at Paperclipping

Wow I have so enjoyed getting to know the gals over at paperclipping.com. I'm thankful I wanted a F.R.E.D. & wasn't able to just go out and buy one that minute (did I just say that? yep because if I had bought it I wouldn't have gotten Noell's post on NSD that she was giving away 2 of them and wouldn't have ever found the live (and lively) community.

Noell & Izzy have done a fantastic job of building a website that provides SO MUCH information! Just the videos alone have taught me so much about design. Then there's the live shows that we get to see the artistic thought process that goes into creating a "Noell" page, hang out and chat & just have a great time on Tuesday nights....

Recently they added the forums and boy have we had a blast getting to know each other. There are women from all over the world but we all share the same passion for telling our stories in scrapbooking. I participated in my first "circle journal" which I understand wasn't a traditional CJ but more of a swap of pages. It was so fun to get the pages each woman made - each so talented and unique. Going to the mailbox was fun (expecting something other than bills lol) . I really had a hard time doing a 6x6 page and struggled - I hadn't done that format before except in mini-books and I kept everything to a minimum. I had a "vision" in mind for my page and couldn't shrink it to the 6x6 size - nothing was working... my supplies were all large scale & out of proportion. After many tries & adding to my scrap paper with not so happy accidents... I gave in and made a 12x12 layout and took it to Kinkos to have them shrink the "vision" I could not myself. I hated sending a color copy of my page but was on a deadline and feeling the pinch. We had originally said color copies were ok or it would have never entered my mind.... All in all it was a wonderful learning experience for me and very fun. I now have 11 people that I know something more about and will always remember my paperclipping buddies.... can't wait for the next CJ challenge.