Announcement | A Sweet Goodbye

Today’s post isn’t about tutorials, templates, or style. Today’s post IS a heartfelt note I want to share with all.

For the past 3 1/2 years, I’ve shared my zest for digital scrapbooking, super-techniques, and helped thousands of digital scrapbookers build their very best pages at reneepearson.com. Today I’m announcing that Scraphic Design will be my final class for the site.

Renee and Kent have been a part of my digital family since they invited me to teach. They are genuine and sincere people. I’ll miss my weekly webinars with Kent and our never-ending football banter — his team ALWAYS outperformed mine. And I’ll miss Renee’s careful guidance and cool head, even through the toughest of situations.

It’s been one helluva journey and I’m proud to have taught beside them. But all great beginnings have an end.

And while one chapter closes, another begins. I will offer new classes in the latter half of this year — not here at Simply Tiffany Studios — but … somewhere. Somewhere cool, somewhere groovy, and alongside some other fabulous digital enthusiasts. More about that coming soon …

To all of my students who’ve joined me at Renee’s, thank you! Thank you for sharing your pages, your love of our hobby, your support of the site, and your passion for learning with me.

Until we meet again!

5 Things a Paper Scrapbooker Can Teach a Digital Scrapbooker

It’s been seven years since I made the switch to digital scrapbooking. I’ve picked up some wisdoms along the way, which I think other digital scrapbooker’s value. One such wisdom is to not complete an entire digital page without saving. Dude, don’t do that! Photoshop will deliberately crash two minutes before you  complete your layout. Some how it knows. It always knows.

Paper scrapbookers know a thing or too about our craft as well. And we can learn from them! Here are five things a paper scrapbooker can teach a digital scrapbooker.

Back That Thang Up

Yesterday, during some routine time-wasting on Facebook, my computer suddenly and without warning displayed a question mark. And it never went away! I felt like someone shot off my pinky toe.

Yes folks, I experienced the demon-folder screen of death. It’s fangs gnashed at my soul with gruesome, hideousness. All of my files and folders, gone. The operating system, gone. Everything I’ve created, gone. In two seconds.

There weren’t enough tears.

But before I completely curled up into the fetal position, I remembered this. Remember that? That post when I described my NEW resolution to back up my files every Sunday on a dedicated external hard drive? Well, I had forgotten more like ignored my reminders to back up my files since mid-January except for this past Sunday!

This past Sunday, on a whim, I plugged my computer in for the night and ran a time machine snapshot of everything on the computer. Just because, somehow, I knew it was time. Some small part of me said, “you know, just in case, you might wanna. Just do it!”

Halleluja! Little voices rock!

I only lost files from this week, which were (or will be when I can) easy to replicate. I’m so proud of myself. So very thankful. So very blessed. Not just because I backed that thang up. But because, for now, the hard drive seems to be in working order. I avoided losing my work and personal artifacts like photos and what not. And all because I backed that thang up. It took six hours to restore the system, but saved me a lifetime of regret.

So let this serve as a service announcement of love to you: BACK THAT THANG UP! Back it up like your life depends on it! Back it up like no one’s watching. Back it up because all good, wholesome women should.

Once in awhile.

Sale at DHD | This Weekend Only

All of my products are 25% off from now through Sunday evening at DHD. Newsletter subscribers received a coupon code for an additional 10% savings in their inbox Thursday morning. Stock up and save!

2012 One Little Word | Grow

2011 | Passion

Last year I chose passion as my word. I wanted to reconnect with parts of me and the world around me that I was most passionate about. Sometimes the choices were simple like picking up a NookColor and connecting with my long-lost passion of reading. I didn’t read as much as I desired in 2011 but I opened the door and made it to the coat check desk. I’ll join the party in the next room soon enough.

Other passions I found were completely new, like Yoga. Practicing yoga, meditating, and deep-breathing settled my mind and stabilized my energy. It opened my senses and offered a self-awareness I hadn’t realized existed. Nothing opens you up more than a deep fire-breathing dragon pose after you’ve injured your groin years ago during childbirth. Nothing.

But I digress.

My entire 2011 was based on a single premise of reconnecting with myself. Loving myself and the world around me. Finding passion in who I am rather than looking at anyone else or honoring their needs first. Well, everyone else besides my children.

That single one little word helped me make little choices everyday that summed up to great rewards. Time to choose another.

2012 | The Dead Tree

Earlier in the year, Hurricane Irene decimated one specifically large tree in the ravine next to my home. The tree was once tall and beautiful with huge roots growing into the riverbed underneath and the tips of its leaves high as the eye could see. Now it looms over the grass in my front yard, lopsided with tips near to the ground and exposed roots barely clutching the soil.

I thought for sure it was a-goner so I called the city to have it removed. When the workers arrived, they did an amazing thing: they simply pruned the tree. They sheared off the parts touching the ground and nurtured the few remaining areas clinging to life. They were careful to only snip limbs which absolutely had to go. And they treated this simple tree with love and care.

The tree ain’t dead. She’s certainly not youthful. Actually, she’s better.

2012 | Grow

The tree inspired my word for 2012: grow. I am the tree. I encountered one (more like two) of the strongest and longest storms of my life. The storm pulled at the very roots, the core, of my being. And I was nearly knocked off my foundation. But I managed to hang on.

The storm is over; a rainbow shines. I stand, pruned. And now I can grow again in a different direction with new winds to feel upon my branches. I’ve got new things to learn, new places to visit, and new people to meet. Time to grow.

Hey you, have a Happy New Year! What’s your word for 2012?

One Little Word

It’s never too late to choose one little word. For more inspiration visit:

• Ali Edwards on One Little Word
• One Little Word 2012 Workshop by Big Picture Classes
• One Little Word Flickr Group